PROVIDENCE – The controversial Christopher Columbus statue recently purchased by a former mayor has found a new home.
Fomer Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., who bought the statue in March for $50,000, has gifted the statue to the town of Johnston, Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. told WPRI-TV CBS 12 on Thursday.
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Polisena told WPRI-TV the statue will be taken out of storage, where it has been for the last three years, and moved to Johnston Memorial Park. The statue will be unveiled on Columbus Day.
“Italian Americans have made tremendous and lasting contributions to the state,” Paolino told WPRI-TV. “The Christopher Columbus statue is a symbol of Italian culture … [Polisena] is playing an important role in ensuring that this historic symbol is not melted down and turned into scrap metal.”
The historic, yet controversial, statue was taken down from its pedestal in Columbus Square in June 2020 after being repeatedly vandalized.
The parks commission voted to issue a public solicitation in July 2022 to find a potential buyer or long-term lessee for the statue. The request for proposals, which closed on Sept. 26, left open the price and use of the statue, only specifying that it “must be well-preserved, protected and not damaged, altered, manipulated or melted down in any way.”
On Oct. 26, the Providence Board of Park Commissioners voted to reissue a public solicitation seeking buyers for the Columbus statue, after the initial solicitation only yielded two responses.
On March 2, the board of park commissioners unanimously selected former Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr.’s bid of $50,000 to purchase the statue.
Paolino previously told WLNE-TV ABC 6 that he wanted to purchase the statue and partner with either a local Italian American organization or a historical museum to preserve the history behind the piece.
The statue, which stood in Columbus Square in Elmwood, was cast in bronze from an original sterling silver statue by the French artist Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the Statue of Liberty. The original statue was commissioned by Providence-based Gorham Manufacturing Co. for the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Some people say the bronze statue, cast in 1893, is an example of artistry and local history. Others condemn it as a symbol of racism and genocide.
Faced with conflicting viewpoints, the city of Providence struggled with deciding where it should go, and to whom. Although the city’s Special Committee for Commemorative Works previously recommended that the city sell the piece at auction – a process in the museum world known as deaccessioning – and use the profits to reinvest in the neighborhood, auction houses were reluctant to take on the task of selling the piece because of its controversial nature, City Parks Superintendent Wendy Nilsson said previously.
Kudos to Joe Paolino. I wish he was still PVD Mayor.