The voyage of Russian-based sculptor Zurab Tsereteli’s monument, which is 45ft taller than the Statue of Liberty without its base and weighs 6,500 tons, has been long, arduous and controversial, not least because of its expense on an island gripped by a $72 billion debt crisis.

Called ‘The Birth of the New World’, the bronze statue was initially planned to have been a donation to the United States, to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s landfall there in 1492.

In 1993, Columbus, Ohio, turned it down. Other cities followed suit, including New York, Boston, Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Finally the statue was offered a home in Puerto Rico, where Columbus arrived in 1493, at a cost of $12 million.

The first choice on the island was Catano, across the bay from the capital, San Juan, but it was decided it would be a risk to aircraft. Arecibo, a northern town, was chosen.

Given Puerto Rico’s financial problems, speeches at the inauguration carried more of a subtext than such remarks usually do.

Jose Gonzales, Tsereteli’s partner in the Puerto Rican company that raised the money to finance the project, said: “We are celebrating the Birth of a New World. But it is also the birth of a new Puerto Rico.”

Ingrid Rivera Rocafort, executive director of a tourism company, noted that “visitors to San Juan can see all of what Puerto Rico has to offer” and said cruise ships bring a million visitors to San Juan each year.

What was being hoped for was clear. In 1997, in Spain’s Basque region, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim museum opened. Within three years it had earned the regional government €100m in tourist taxes, enough to pay its costs with a dollop extra. Economists call this “the Bilbao Effect”.

Whether The Birth of the New World can work similar magic for Puerto Rico remains to be seen.