Thanks to the Mayor of Budapest, there’s a bronze statue of Detective Columbo and his dog — who just happens to be named “Dog” — on Miksa Street in the Hungarian city. Installed in 2014 at an estimated cost of $63,000, the statue was part of an overall rejuvenation project in the area, though exactly why the figure was chosen is a bit of a mystery. Antal Rogán, district mayor at the time, believed that actor Peter Falk may have been related to the 19th-century Hungarian political figure Miksa Falk, for whom the street is named. Falk is known to have had Hungarian roots through his grandparents on one side of the family, but has never been definitively linked to Miksa Falk’s family. Many believe that the statue was unveiled in time to garner votes in a general election that took place a few weeks after the figure was unveiled. Maybe if Columbo were still alive, he could solve the case.
