An illegally erected monument to an extinct butterfly was removed from Golden Gate Park on Friday by San Francisco public art officials.

The sculpture, “Memorial to the Extinct Xerces Blue Butterfly,” was “an unauthorized sculpture intervention of unknown provenance by an unidentified artist or group of artists that was installed on the vacant plinth that was previously the base of the Padre Junipero Serra statue,” San Francisco Arts Commission officials said in a news release Friday.

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Kiley Russell writes primarily for Local News Matters on issues related to equity and the environment. A Bay Area native, he has lived most of his life in Oakland. He studied journalism at San Francisco State University, worked for the Associated Press and the former Contra Costa Times, among other outlets. He has covered everything from state legislatures, local governments, federal and state courts, crime, growth and development, political campaigns of various stripes, wildfires and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.