Since the summer of 2020, Christopher Columbus statues have been removed from public spaces in more than a dozen American cities, either torn down by protesters or taken away by officials responding to public pressure. Six years on, most of those statues sit in storage, have been quietly loaned to Italian American organizations, or have found new homes inside private museums. A handful of legal fights remain unresolved, and one destroyed monument has been recreated and installed on the White House grounds.
Where the Removed Columbus Statues Are Today
The displaced monuments have scattered widely. Some have been restored and rehomed on private property. Others remain in warehouses years after they came down, waiting on court rulings or city plans that keep stalling.
Richmond, Virginia
The 1925 bronze that protesters dragged into a Byrd Park lake on June 9, 2020, was pulled out the next day.1CNN. Christopher Columbus Statues Come Down After an Italian American group raised money for restoration and hauled it 12 hours north, it was unveiled on September 29, 2024, at a bocce ball court at the Sons of Italy Lodge No. 2176 in Blauvelt, New York.2New York Post. Christopher Columbus Statue Tossed Into Lake in Virginia Finds New Home in NYC Burbs
Boston
The North End marble statue was beheaded overnight on June 9, 2020, and city crews removed what was left.1CNN. Christopher Columbus Statues Come Down The repaired statue was transferred to the Knights of Columbus and incorporated into their development at 41 Margin Street in the North End. It will not return to its original waterfront park.3Boston Herald. Boston Christopher Columbus Statue Won’t Come Back to Site but Will Remain in North End
New Haven, Connecticut
The 1892 Wooster Square monument, removed in June 2020 after repeated vandalism, was placed under an art loan agreement announced in May 2025 that sent it to the Lost in New Haven Museum at 80 Hamilton Street. A new sculpture by artist Marc-Anthony Massaro, Indicando la via al futuro (“Pointing the Way to the Future”), now stands in Wooster Square.4City of New Haven. Columbus Memorial Loan Agreement5NBC Connecticut. Columbus Statue Removed From New Haven in 2020 Finally Finds a Home at a New Museum
St. Paul, Minnesota
The 10-foot bronze pulled from the Capitol grounds on June 10, 2020, by American Indian Movement activists is still in storage on the Capitol campus. The granite pedestal stands empty. No applications for a replacement have been filed, and the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board is working on a broader redesign of the grounds.6MinnPost. Italian Americans, Minnesota State Capitol Christopher Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
The 22-foot bronze that Mayor Andrew Ginther ordered removed from outside City Hall on July 1, 2020, remains in storage. It was a 1955 gift from Genoa, Italy, the city’s sister city.7ABC 6. City of Columbus to Remove Christopher Columbus Statue Outside City Hall8Spectrum News 1. Christopher Columbus Statue9The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus Statue From City Hall Still in Limbo
Chicago
The Arrigo Park bronze is heading to the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans’ planned Chicago Museum of Italian Immigrants at 1501 W. Taylor Street under a May 2025 settlement. A new monument honoring a figure known for contributions to Chicago’s Italian American community will take its place in the park; the JCCIA has proposed Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini.10Chicago Park District. City, Park District Reach Settlement Agreement With Civic Committee of Italian Americans The Grant Park statue, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot had originally called a “temporary” removal in July 2020, will not return to the park. The Park District plans to remove the plinth and hold a public process for new artwork.11WTTW. Columbus Statue Will Not Return to Grant Park, Officials Announce A third Columbus statue from the Far South Side was also removed; no plans for it have been announced.
Baltimore
The 1984 marble statue near Little Italy was toppled into the Inner Harbor on July 4, 2020. Italian American Organizations United retrieved the pieces and found the marble too damaged to repair. The shattered original and a sculptor’s replica remain in a warehouse on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Fragments of the original were used to guide the creation of a full replica that now stands on the White House grounds.12NPR. Baltimore Protesters Topple Columbus Statue13WBAL-TV. New Statue Created After Baltimore Christopher Columbus Statue Toppled
Statues That Stayed
Not every targeted monument came down. In Waterbury, Connecticut, a 12-foot granite Columbus statue was decapitated on July 4, 2020. The local chapter of the Italian American service organization Unico raised more than $8,000 for repairs, and in a November 2020 referendum, 59 percent of voters chose to keep the restored statue in front of City Hall.14Washington Post. Christopher Columbus Monuments in America15WTNH. Waterbury Activist Not Surprised by Vote to Keep Beheaded Columbus Statue In Miami, a Columbus statue was spray-painted with “BLM” but left standing. In New York City, the NYPD stationed officers to guard the monument at Columbus Circle.16BBC. Columbus Statues Vandalised Across the US
How the 2020 Wave of Removals Happened
Removals came in a rapid burst during June and July 2020, triggered by nationwide protests over racial injustice after the police killing of George Floyd. Some statues fell to crowds with ropes and chains. Others were taken down by public works crews after mayors decided the political cost of leaving them exposed outweighed the cost of removing them.
In Richmond, protesters vandalized the Byrd Park bronze and pulled it into a lake on June 9. That same night in Boston, someone beheaded the North End marble.1CNN. Christopher Columbus Statues Come Down The next day at the Minnesota State Capitol, members of the American Indian Movement led by Mike Forcia of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe roped the 10-foot bronze and pulled it down; state workers hauled it away by crane.17Minnesota Reformer. Native Activists Pull Down Christopher Columbus Statue at State Capitol
Officials took the lead in other cities. On July 1, Mayor Ginther ordered the City Hall bronze in Columbus, Ohio, taken down, saying it represented “patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness.”7ABC 6. City of Columbus to Remove Christopher Columbus Statue Outside City Hall On July 24, Mayor Lightfoot ordered the overnight removal of Chicago’s Grant Park and Arrigo Park statues after clashes between police and protesters at Grant Park.18Chicago Tribune. Mayor Lori Lightfoot Again Says Christopher Columbus Statue Will Return to Grant Park New Haven’s Parks Commission authorized the removal of the Wooster Square monument on June 24 after repeated vandalism.5NBC Connecticut. Columbus Statue Removed From New Haven in 2020 Finally Finds a Home at a New Museum
The Legal Battles Still Playing Out
Columbus, Ohio
On April 7, 2026, a coalition of Italian American organizations including the Columbus Piave Club, the Friends of Christopher Columbus Foundation, the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO), and the Order of the Sons and Daughters of Italy filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Columbus, Mayor Ginther, the Columbus Art Commission, and multiple federal agencies. The suit alleges the 2020 removal was illegal and discriminatory, violating the Visual Artists Rights Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Columbus City Charter, and constitutional protections. The plaintiffs argue the 1955 gift from Genoa carried a condition that the statue be displayed outside City Hall “forever” under a Sister Cities agreement, and they want a court order forcing its reinstallation.19WOSU. Italian American Groups Sue to Have Christopher Columbus Statue Reinstalled at City Hall20ABC 6. Lawsuit Filed Over Removal of Christopher Columbus Statue From City Hall The case is pending.
Chicago
The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans sued Chicago in July 2021 to force the return of the Arrigo Park statue, citing a 1973 agreement. The city, the Chicago Park District, and the JCCIA settled on May 1, 2025. The bronze goes on indefinite loan to the JCCIA for its planned Taylor Street museum, and a new monument replaces it in Arrigo Park.21Chicago Sun-Times. Columbus Statue Removal Arrigo Park Potential Agreement
New Haven
An Italian American group unsuccessfully sued New Haven in 2022 to force the return of the Wooster Square statue. A separate suit filed by the Italian American Defense League seeking the same result remains ongoing.5NBC Connecticut. Columbus Statue Removed From New Haven in 2020 Finally Finds a Home at a New Museum
Criminal Consequences for Toppling a Statue
Mike Forcia, who organized the Minnesota Capitol toppling, was charged with a felony count of criminal damage to property, with repair estimates reaching roughly $154,000. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi routed the case through a restorative justice process instead of trial. In December 2020, Forcia accepted a suspended prosecution agreement calling for 100 hours of community service and a letter acknowledging the damage. Completion would clear the felony from his record. Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Sarah Cory said the consensus was that “jail and prison time and conviction would not be what was the best response to this action.”22MPR News. Activist Who Toppled Columbus Statue at Capitol Gets Community Service23Minnesota Reformer. Native Activist Who Toppled Capitol Columbus Statue Gets Community Service
The Federal Counter-Movement
President Trump signed two executive orders in response to the 2020 wave. The June 26, 2020, order directed the Attorney General to prioritize prosecution of anyone who damages public monuments under federal statutes carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison, and authorized withholding federal grants from state and local governments that fail to protect statues from vandalism.24Trump White House Archives. Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues A July 3, 2020, order established a task force to build a “National Garden of American Heroes” featuring statues of historically significant Americans, a list that explicitly included Columbus. The garden was intended to open by July 4, 2026, and the order directed federal agencies to prioritize commissioning new statues in communities where existing monuments had been removed.25Trump White House Archives. Executive Order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes
In March 2026, a 13-foot, one-ton replica of the destroyed Baltimore monument, built in 2022 using retrieved marble fragments as a guide, was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building facing Pennsylvania Avenue. COPOMIAO loaned it to the federal government, and it went up over the weekend of March 21–22, 2026.26The Guardian. Trump Christopher Columbus Statue27CNN. Christopher Columbus Statue Installed on White House Grounds The pedestal reads: “Destroyed July 4, 2020 … Resurrected 2022 … Rededicated by President Donald J. Trump, October 13, 2025.” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the administration was “proud to honor Christopher Columbus’s legendary life and legacy” as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations. COPOMIAO’s Basil Russo called the statue a symbol of “pride and cultural identity” for Italian immigrants.
Who Has the Authority to Remove a Public Statue
Whether a mayor, council, or crowd can lawfully remove a monument depends almost entirely on state law. Courts have consistently held, going back to Hunter v. Pittsburgh in 1907, that cities are subordinate units created by states, which can grant or withdraw their powers. Several states have passed “statue statutes” stripping local governments of authority to alter or remove monuments. Alabama’s 2017 law, upheld by the state supreme court in State v. City of Birmingham (2019), is the most prominent example.28Syracuse Law Review. Statue Statutes and Municipal Authority
Where such restrictions do not exist, the decision typically rests with the mayor, city council, or a parks or art commission, depending on the local charter. North Carolina’s statute prohibits the permanent removal of “objects of remembrance” on public property but allows relocation under limited circumstances, and any permanent move must place the object at a site of “similar prominence, honor, visibility, availability, and access.”29UNC School of Government. Statutes and Limits on Removing Monuments From Public Property The Columbus, Ohio lawsuit will test whether a mayoral removal without a formal council vote, and in alleged breach of a gift agreement with a foreign city, can survive a federal challenge.