The statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza in Philadelphia, Dec. 12.
Photo:
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Thom Nickels writing for City Journal, Dec. 23:
The statue of
Christopher Columbus
in South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza had been hidden in a plywood box since the 2020
George Floyd
riots. It was boxed after a city-wide iconoclastic purge following the riots. . . . On December 9, however, Pennsylvania judge
Mary Hannah Leavitt
ruled that the plywood box covering the statue must be removed. She stated that, if the city disagrees with the statue’s “message,” it could add a plaque explaining what is “more in line with the message the City wishes to convey.”
“More to the point,” Judge Leavitt continued, “the City accepted the donation of the Columbus statue in 1876. It has a fiduciary duty to preserve that statue, which it designated an historic object in 2017. The Columbus statue is not City property as is, for example, a City snowblower. Whether the City agrees with the ‘message’ is simply irrelevant to its fiduciary duty to preserve and maintain public works of art that have been designated historic objects.” Leavitt’s ruling reversed a 2021 court decision permitting the city to keep the statue in a box.
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Appeared in the December 24, 2022, print edition as ‘Notable & Quotable: Philly.’
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