This article discusses the importance of the Latin American public sculpture market for European artists in the early 20th century. It analyses the contest to erect the Monument the Independence of Brazil, considering to the strategies used by state managers in the international dissemination of competition and in the choice of the project of the Italian Ettore Ximenes. It observes the participation of the European artists and the rewards they receive when participating in the competition. The objective is to understand the operation of international public contests, given that this way of selecting works was a recurrent practice in the early twentieth century in Latin America and that it has constituted an important market for European sculptors, especially Italian sculptors.