The sculpture with fountain on the McClung Plaza is a recast of the Europa and the Bull fountain and sculpture of Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875–1955), which was erected in 1926 in the market square of Halmstad, Sweden.
Mrs. Thomas Berry (Ellen McClung Berry) presented a gift of downtown Knoxville real estate valued at $300,000 to the university during the construction of the classroom and office tower building on campus, and UT President Holt announced that the complex and the plaza surrounding it would be named the McClung Tower and Plaza, honoring Berry’s father and mother, at her request.
Berry wished the plaza to be well landscaped and to have a fountain. She selected the Europa and the Bull fountain and sculpture. The university purchased a casting from the molds for the Europa and the Bull sculpture from the Carl and Olga Milles Foundation for $60,000. Molds for the four tritons in the original work were not available. The sculpture was cast in Copenhagen. It is nine feet high and weighs 2,645 pounds. The university’s agreement with the Milles Foundation included a provision that no more castings would be allowed.
Carl Milles was on the faculty of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and a casting of Europa and the Bull is also located on the Cranbrook campus.
On October 5, 1990, both this sculpture and the Volunteer Statue were vandalized. Antinuclear slogans were painted on them, and orange and brown paint were then splashed over the words and parts of the statues.