A statue of former US President Theodore Roosevelt, which stood in front of a New York museum for nearly 80 years, was removed this week after criticism of its “racial image”, by many considered a racist symbol.
The sculpture, which was housed in the Museum of Natural History, showed the 26th US president mounted on a horse with two men, one Native American and one African, on either side.
A museum spokesperson told CNN, in a written statement Thursday, that the statue’s removal process was “conducted by experts in historic preservation and approved by various New York City agencies.” The process will include the restoration of the plaza in front of the museum.
Removal began on Tuesday (18) and the sculpture was removed on Thursday, after a year and a half process.
The museum first requested that the statue be removed in June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the global protests that followed.
Roosevelt statue joins others
The Theodore Roosevelt statue now joins a number of other American monuments that have been relocated in recent months. Most, if not all, of these removals were motivated by the 2020 protests.
“The statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the museum and the public have long found disturbing,” the institution wrote in the June order.
This is conveyed in the composition of the statue: the white man, Roosevelt, is positioned in the center, on horseback, while the other two men are behind him, walking.
That June 2020 order was approved by then-Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. A year later, the New York City Public Design Commission unanimously voted to temporarily remove and store the sculpture.
A new home for the statue was announced last November: Medora, North Dakota, about two hours west of Bismarck, at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The library, which is due to open in 2026, said in a statement that it had reached a long-term loan agreement with New York City.
Since 1940, the sculpture has stood in front of the New York Museum and was originally commissioned to celebrate Roosevelt.
“The museum is proud to remain the site of the official New York State memorial to Theodore Roosevelt,” it added in a statement.
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
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