Two removed Christopher Columbus statues still in hiding as officials consider their future

COLUMBUS — Sixty-six years ago, Landa Masdea Brunetto's father and grandfather hurriedly worked through the night in the family's machine shop to fabricate specialty bolts and washers unexpectedly needed by the next day to erect the newly arrived statue of Christopher Columbus outside Columbus City Hall. "My dad and grandfather literally stayed up all night," Masdea Brunetto said. To members of the city's Italian community, the 7,000-pound bronze gift from the residents of Genoa, Italy, Columbus' sister city, was more than just a statue of the city's namesake. It was a coming of age for a people who long had felt the sting of discrimination and second-class citizenship. "They had to keep their heads down; they had to dismantle their Italian ways and become Americans," said Brunetto, 67, remembering that her sleepless grandfather then conducted the Italian band that played at a dedication ceremony watched by an estimated 100,000 people. Mayor Andrew J. Ginther rushed the statue's removal into exile in July 2020 amid racial justice protests that occurred Downtown following the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd Jr. by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Many Columbus residents of Italian heritage say they were left out of the big decision about the city hall statue, "being glossed over and ignored, and patted on the heads," Brunetto said. A month earlier, Columbus State University announced first it was removing its Christopher Columbus statue at its Downtown campus. In a written statement, Columbus State President David Harrison called the decision "a symbolic gesture of our commitment to our college community to continue and accelerate the fight against systemic racism." As a second Columbus Day passed Monday without the two statues, some in the Columbus Italian community want the city to either reinstall the statue or give it to community groups instrumental in bringing it here in 1955. "I don't think they're hiding it for its own protection anymore," said Bill DeMora, a four-time past-president of the Columbus Italian Club. "I think they're hiding it because there's nowhere to put it up. "I just don't think the community as a whole has come up with a solution," he said. "Public art is powerful, and people bring different perceptions to it," said Diane Nance, who is chairing a special Columbus statue committee of the city's Art Commission, which by city code is officially responsible for all city-owned art. The committee, formed last spring, is tasked with deciding the fate of the city's Columbus statue. When Ginther announced that the city's statue would come down, he said that for many people it represented "patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness. That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past." At the time, Christopher Columbus statues across the nation and world were literally under assault, and Ginther's decision was hailed by many social justice groups that said Columbus, the explorer, represented the genocidal cleansing of the New World and exploitation of Indigenous people. Groups had gathered as early as 2017 to demand the city statue's removal. Today, as Downtown slowly re-awakens from a somewhat desolate state caused by COVID-19, the city hall statue lies in the corner of a secured city warehouse. At least for a time, the city's Columbus statue was wearing a blue COVID face mask, according to a photo that was leaked to former TV reporter and current city council candidate Tom Sussi, who posted it online. As for the the two-story tall Columbus State statue, its fate also remains up in the air. That massive, 20-ton stone work, after the bottom was covered in graffiti by protesters last year, was moved to an undisclosed offsite-storage site, paid for by a private donor, said Brent Wilder, a spokesman for the downtown community college. The Columbus State statue was created by sculptor Alfred Solani in 1959, and was first installed in an Illinois park before being moved to Columbus State. At the time, the college paid $25,000 to build a pedestal and $25,000 to repair and restore it, according to Dispatch archives. "Talks are ongoing about potential relocation, but nothing is set at this time," Wilder said in an email. The subcommittee discussing the fate of the city's statue was scheduled to end work this month with a report, but now it looks like early next year is the earliest any decisions could be made, Nance said. The Dispatch couldn't reach two subcommittee members last week representing the view critical of the statue. But according to video of a past meeting in June that's available on the internet, one of those members, Dan Montour, said that if the city's Columbus statue is to be ultimately displayed again publicly, it must be accompanied by significantly noticeable exhibits explaining the atrocities committed by Columbus "that have been whitewashed." "All around this country, Columbus is taught differently," Montour said at the meeting. "We know in this country we have a very tenuous relationship with history. Some people believe the Civil War is called the War of Northern Aggression. Many of us weren't taught about the Tulsa race massacre. Many of us weren't taught about residential school violence for native children." These "holes" in the history books need to be filled, Montour said. "If the statue goes back up, the idea of it being a teaching device is one of the best ways to view it," he said, including explaining why Columbus residents thought it was a good idea to put it up, and why they then thought about it again and took it down. "One of the reasons this thing stayed up is because it's a gift," Montour said. "We recognize the intentions of the people of Genoa." The statue didn't just show up in town one day, but was the product of in-depth work of Italian residents reaching out to the Genoa donors, said Joseph Contino, a spokesman for the Columbus Piave Club. "The statue was given to our club, and we gave it to the city," Contino said. "I don't understand why it's just not a no-brainer to just give it back to us. "They (city officials) were very disrespectful to us. We didn't get a phone call. ... Just give us the statue. We'll find a place for it." Money is no issue, Contino said, as the club has wealthy benefactors who can finance any relocation effort — many of them the sons and daughters of immigrants who went on to build successful and prominent Columbus businesses. The subcommittee has progressed to the point that it is drafting informative content about Christopher Columbus that could surround the statue if it were to make a re-emergence to a public space, Nance said. "We're just the first step," Nance said. "We're doing the first work toward it." Nance said the subcommittee members have been exceptionally respectful of one another's views. "We've got a big job," he said. "This discussion starts here, but it may not end here." Meanwhile, a third statue of Christopher Columbus remains in place outside the Statehouse. The Capital Square Review and Advisory Board, which oversees the statehouse grounds, had received only one emailed complaint about the Columbus statue there at the time the announcements about removing the other two statues were made, and it has made no decision to remove its statue. ©2021 www.dispatch.com. Visit dispatch.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.