Teddy Roosevelt Statue Vandalized Outside Museum of Natural History
CBS New York, October 26, 2017
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A statue of Teddy Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History has been vandalized.
A substance described by police as fake blood was splattered on the base of the monument at the museum entrance on Central Park West and 79th Street sometime between 4 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.
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An NYPD camera near the scene caught the whole thing and sources said it’s giving police a head start in trying to figure out who the culprits are, Kramer reported.
The 10-foot tall bronze sculpture depicts the former New York governor and 26th president on horseback flanked by African and Native American men.
“To see the colonialist white leader on horseback above a Native American and above an African has been a sensitive depiction for some time,” T.H. Williams, who is an art historian, told WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman.
He believes a historical plaque would help it be understood “rather than silenced.”
Some have been demanding the statue’s removal for months, deeming it racist.
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“Vandalism has no place in the thoughtful conversation the city is having on our monuments and markers,” a spokesperson for the mayor said.
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Vandals have targeted other monuments in recent months, including the Christopher Columbus statue in Central Park where vandals doused the hands of the statue in blood-red paint and scrawled the words “hate will not be tolerated.”
The vandalism comes as a committee reviews controversial statues and plaques across the city.
Mayor Bill de Blasio established the monument review commission in the wake of violence in Charlottesville following the decision to remove statues of Confederate generals.
