Christopher Columbus statue removed from Columbus City Hall

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Crews early Wednesday removed the statue of Christopher Columbus from in front of Columbus City Hall.

Shortly before 6:30 a.m. local time, the statue was lifted off its pedestal and rotated to face City Hall. Within an hour, the statue had been placed onto a flatbed truck and taken away from the area.

According to a press release issued by the city Wednesday morning, Smoot Construction was involved in moving the statue, which “will be placed in safekeeping at a secure city facility.”

Last month, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said he wanted to see the statue removed from City Hall.

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The decision was hailed by groups that say Columbus statues depict the explorer’s genocidal cleansing of the New World and exploitation of Native people, and opposed by Italian-Americans who say the statues are works of art that forge goodwill and should be preserved.

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Ginther has called on the Columbus Art Commission to lead an effort to replace the statue with public artwork that better reflects the people of Columbus and offers a shared vision for the future.

The statue, which was a gift to Columbus from its sister city of Genoa, Italy, was placed at City Hall in 1955.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Christopher Columbus statue removed from Columbus City Hall in Ohio