Fireplace, identification and removal component

I'm guessing it's 100% decorative. And that looks to be a new-ish insert (or recently repainted and rebricked).

You'll have to get into the fireplace and see with a scope or mirrors where they go, but I'm guessing it's just drilled into the facade brick and screwed in under those flower heads.

It does look pretty cool though. My wife would kill me however if I put it in.

If those "stubs" (did you mean "studs?) don't have any obvious way to tighten them, they may indeed be just decorative. If that's the case, I would have made the entire assembly hang from a hidden bracket at the top. So the bracket would be bolted into the brick and have a protruding lip, then a matching lip on the inside and at the top of the decorative element would allow the installer to hang it with the bracket not showing, kind of like a giant picture hanger. The sides however may be cemented to the brick to keep in in place, which would make it difficult to remove.

And I agree, that would be cool for a "bachelor pad", but my wife would ahve made me remove it immediately.