The Finn had only been on the island a day before defacing the 'Moai' statue on Sunday, and is now in police custody awaiting to hear his fate after an angry resident caught him in the act.

'He says he planned to take it away as a souvenir,' a police official said on Tuesday by telephone from Easter Island, declining to be named. 'He could face prison ... but it is more likely he will face a fine big enough to fix the damage.'

The Moai monoliths have fascinated visitors to Easter Island, whose native name is 'Rapa Nui' and which is also known as 'navel of the world', ever since the first Europeans landed there on Easter Sunday, 1722.

Easter Island is a Unesco world heritage site.

Carved by Polynesian colonisers out of the island's volcanic rock from as early as the 10th century according to Unesco, hundreds of sculptures of huge heads and torsos pepper the island, which has an area of just 164 sq km.

The largest standing statue is nearly 10 metres tall and weighs 75 tonnes. -- REUTERS