A long-standing controversial statue of former Belgian king Leopold II has been taken down after being set ablaze last week during global unrest over the death of police prisoner George Floyd, according to a report.
Protesters in Antwerp have long criticized the 150-year-old statue as a symbol of the country’s violent past. Leopold II captured Congo in the late 19th century and ran a brutal regime, plundered the land for personal gain and killed 10 million people, Brussels Times reports.
To try to overcome the anger over the monument, Antwerp in 2018 added a sign to contextualize the Belgian colonial government.
But the statue was completely removed on Tuesday morning after suffering “severe damage” during the fire, and will be moved to the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp for restoration, officials said.
“The statue has been damaged and will be removed and temporarily stored in the statue collection at the Middelheim Museum, where the statue will be restored,” Johan Vermant, spokesman for the mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, told The Brussels Times.
Officials say they do not know when the restoration will be completed, but the redesign of the upcoming public space that once stood is likely to mean it will never return.
“Because the square where the statue stands will be redesigned in 2023, and there will be no room for it afterwards, it will probably remain part of the museum’s collection,” Vermant said.
The broken statue of former Belgian king Leopold II is seen being moved for possible renovations in Ekeren, Belgium.through REUTERS
The statue is one of several dedicated to Leopold II in Belgium which officials are now considering removing, the Brussels Times reported.
This is also among several controversial statues around the world – including in the United States – which have been overcome in response to the recent civil unrest over racism and police brutality.
In the US, protesters have successfully lobbied to remove a statue in Philadelphia from the controversial former Mayor Frank Rizzo.
Meanwhile demonstrators in the south have targeted a number of confederate monuments. Virginia is looking to erase the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, which has been severely damaged during recent protests.
Protesters in the Virginia capital have taken it themselves to bring down another statue of the confederation there, General Williams Carter Wickham.
And in Britain, protesters knocked down a bronze statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston on Sunday and dumped it into the port of Bristol.
