An artwork historian who chaired Louisville’s public artwork fee mentioned he would go away his submit amid plans to revive a statue of King Louis XVI graffitied by protestors in 2020 following the police killing of Breonna Taylor.
In an op-ed published in the Courier-Journal, Chris Reitz, a scholar who has printed two books on painter Martin Kippenberger, accused town of Louisville, Kentucky, of trying to “erase all proof” of these 2020 protests on their five-year anniversary. He raised issues about the price of restoring the sculpture, which he described as being “past restore,” and questioned the true motivation for paying the sum.
“There are authentic causes to take care of this statue, however, from the place I sit, they don’t justify the excessive price ticket of that care,” he wrote. “Certainly, it’s exhausting to think about that anybody would assist this expense if the statue had been broken by chance or act of God.”
Furthermore, Reitz wrote, “I concern that the true goal of those funds to ship a message that our metropolis is hostile to anti-police protests and that we want to faux Ms. Taylor’s killing by no means occurred than face the truth that not sufficient has modified to forestall such tragedies sooner or later.”
The statue of Louisville’s namesake was broken on Could 28, 2020, the identical day that town launched the 911 calls from Taylor’s boyfriend and neighbors describing her killing. Taylor was fatally shot by on March 13, 2020, throughout a police raid on her condo. Her household was awarded $12 million by town of Louisville later that yr; one of many officers who opened hearth throughout that raid was discovered responsible of utilizing extreme drive in 2024.
The Louis XVI statue was produced by Achille Valois, a member of Jacques-Louis David’s studio. It was initially erected in Montpellier, France, in 1829, however was not given by that metropolis to Louisville till 1966.
On Could 28, 2020, a person pulled off one of many sculpture’s fingers. In the course of the course of the summer time, as protests continued to roil the nation and longstanding monuments fell, the Louis XVI statue was graffitied. Finally, nevertheless, Louisville officers determined to take it away, claiming security issues.
Questions on what to do with the statue have been debated ever since. A 2022 survey found that just 60 percent of Louisville residents thought the statue represented their values. And analysis commissioned by town revealed that the sculpture was already structurally broken earlier than the 2020 protests.
However Louisville officers have continued to push makes an attempt to revive the work—whilst town’s Fee on Public Artwork, which Reitz chaired, suggested in opposition to doing so.
Town has estimated the price of restoring the sculpture and placing it again on view at $200,000. Reitz, an artwork historical past professor on the College of Louisville, mentioned the statue’s “estimated truthful market worth is barely $60,000.” He additionally claimed that even when the statue have been repaired, “it may by no means return exterior” as a result of its marble was so cracked.
“This metropolis deserves nice artwork,” Reitz wrote. “And I don’t need to stir the pot. Maybe Louisville desires their King again—maybe they don’t thoughts spending tax {dollars} to restore an irreparable statue. They may simply must do it with out me.”
His resignation comes as high-ranking US politicians proceed to argue over how greatest to cope with public monuments. In a recent executive order that focused the Smithsonian Establishment, President Donald Trump wrote that museums should commit themselves to “solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind People of our extraordinary heritage, constant progress towards turning into a extra excellent Union, and unmatched document of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.” His order required politicians to “take motion to reinstate” monuments that had been taken away for the reason that begin of 2020.
Furthermore, Trump wrote, politicians should make sure that present monuments don’t “inappropriately disparage People previous or dwelling.”
Some museums have taken a special stance. Curator Hamza Walker has been readying a long-awaited present known as “MONUMENTS” that may debut on the Museum of Up to date Artwork Los Angeles this fall. Alongside modern artworks, the present will function decommissioned Accomplice monuments that present their “roots in a funerary impulse to [their] rise as a crystalline image of a white supremacist ideology, whose obstinacy turned more and more conspicuous in opposition to requires civil proper,” per the present’s description.
