Two years after it was toppled by protesters, Richmond City Council has given away a statue of Christopher Columbus to a local Italian-American organization. The statue of Columbus, which stood over Byrd Park, was torn down and thrown into a nearby lake in the Summer of 2020, during a spontaneous demonstration in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis Police Officer.
Now, the statue will go to the Italian American Cultural Association of Virginia, an organization based in Richmond that celebrates Italian culture. In a newsletter published ahead of the council’s final decision, IACA member John Corritone celebrated the transfer.
