Jefferson statue in NYC about to go
Debate in rethinking artwork and public monuments remains
NEW YORK — A 19th-century statue of Thomas Jefferson, which had spent more than 100 years perched above the New York City Council chamber, was marked for removal last month by city officials.
The decision, which came after a unanimous vote, was decades in the making.
Many Council members, especially from the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, had pushed for the statue’s eviction; opponents argued that removing it would be an overreaction to Jefferson’s complex history as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, but also as a man who enslaved more than 600 people and fathered several children with one of them, Sally Hemings.
Left unresolved was when the 7-foot statue would be moved, and where it would go.
On Monday, those answers became clear. The statue will be given to the New-York Historical Society, and will be placed in its lobby gallery for six months before being relocated to the museum’s reading room for the duration of the 10-year loan agreement. Both locations are accessible to the public in areas not requiring a ticket.
Louise Mirrer, the historical society’s president and chief executive, said the statue would be displayed starting in April and would coincide with an exhibition looking at the “principal contradiction of our founding ideals.”
“From the start, we have seen the opportunity to display the statue as consistent with the ways in which we look at history at our institution,” Mirrer said. “Jefferson just has to be one of those figures that really draws attention to the distance between our founding ideals and the reality of our nation.”
The decision was finalized Monday by the Public Design Commission, which oversees art at city-owned property. The commission had planned to authorize moving the statue to the historical society last month but delayed amid concerns that it would not be freely accessible if it were placed there. Members of the public also raised strong opposition to the proposal during a virtual public hearing.
The sculpture was created by celebrated French artist PierreJean David d’Angers. It is a plaster model of the bronze statue of Jefferson that is on display in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington.
The statue was commissioned in 1833 by Uriah P. Levy, the first Jewish commodore in the U.S. Navy, to commemorate Jefferson’s advocacy of religious freedom in the armed forces.
The painted plaster version was later donated to New Yorkers and arrived at City Hall around 1834. Levy charged admission to view the sculpture and donated the money to the poor.
The historical society already has a sword that belonged to Levy in its collection.
Michele Bogart, a professor emeritus of art history and visual culture at Stony Brook University in New York, said the statue’s removal only “deflects attention” from the “bad men” who are sometimes memorialized in public art. Bogart was one of 17 historians who signed a letter last month that suggested relocating the statue to the Governor’s Room in City Hall, a reception room where it was housed for most of the 19th century.