| Statue of Louis XVI | |
|---|---|
 The statue in 2008 | |
 | |
| Artist | Achille Valois |
| Subject | Louis XVI |
| Location | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| 38°15′16″N85°45′37″W / 38.25436°N 85.76014°W | |
A statue of Louis XVI by Achille Valois arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in December 1966 and was installed in July 1967, it will likely be reinstalled before 2029.
| Weight | Height | Material |
|---|---|---|
| 6.5 tons | 6′10″ | Carrara marble with limestone base |
The statue's first home was the town square of Montpellier, France, in 1829. There, it was reviled and toppled over in less than year. It was then moved to a military dungeon and stayed there until it was discovered by an officer taking inventory in 1899. In 1966, Montpellier decided to give the statue to Louisville, Kentucky, since the city is named after Louis XVI. It was shipped on a U.S. Navy ship to Norfolk, Virginia, where it sat for a week in Naval Station Pier 2 in late 1966. The statue was then put on a train and made it to Louisville on Christmas Day 1966. The mayor of Louisville at the time, Kenneth Schmied, is quoted as saying, "It's a great Christmas present for our city." [2]
Following vandalism during the May 2020 George Floyd protests, it was removed to a city storage facility that September. Restoration costs were estimated at around $200,000. It will likely be reinstalled before the statue’s bi-centennial in 2029 so that it can be again displayed as a "gesture of friendship" that will last "forever." [3]
The Louisville Metro Hall is the center of Louisville, Kentucky's government. It currently houses the Mayor's Office and the Jefferson County Clerk's Office for marriage licensing, delinquent tax filings, and the deeds room. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Construction began in 1836, and both the City of Louisville and Jefferson County governments starting using it in 1842.
The John B. Castleman Monument, within the Cherokee Triangle of Louisville, Kentucky, was unveiled on November 8, 1913. The model, selected from a competition to which numerous sculptors contributed, was designed by R. Hinton Perry of New York. The statue was erected to honor John Breckinridge Castleman at a cost of $15,000 by popular subscription from city, state, and other commonwealths. The statue is made of bronze, and rests on a granite pedestal. It stands 15-feet high, with a base of 12×20 feet. The monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. There have been attempts to remove the statue since January 2019 because Castleman was a Major of the Confederate army. The monument was removed on June 8, 2020, and is pending cleaning and relocation to Castleman's burial site.
The influence of those of French ancestry on Louisville, Kentucky, USA and the surrounding area, especially New Albany, Indiana, began in the 18th century. The city was named for King Louis XVI of France. Before Louisville was established, the site was once home to a French outpost called La Belle.
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Gregory Edward Fischer is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023. In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in 2020, he served as its president.
Achille-Joseph-Étienne Valois was a French designer and sculptor who studied for a time in the atelier of Jacques-Louis David and whose sculptural works may be seen in Paris. He also studied with Antoine-Denis Chaudet.
Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider is a bronze sculpture by American artist Alexander Phimister Proctor, formerly located in the South Park Blocks of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The equestrian statue was completed in 1922 and depicts Theodore Roosevelt as the leader of the cavalry regiment that fought during the Spanish–American War called the Rough Riders. It was toppled by demonstrators during the Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage in October 2020 and has not been restored.
Thompson Elk Fountain, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, the Thompson Elk, or simply Elk, was a historic fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain with its statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It was owned by the City of Portland.
A bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln by George Fite Waters was installed in Portland, Oregon's South Park Blocks, in the United States, until 2020. The 10-foot statue was donated by Henry Waldo Coe.
A 1926–27 statue of George Washington by Italian American artist Pompeo Coppini was installed in northeast Portland, Oregon, United States. The bronze sculpture was the second of three statues of Washington by the artist, following a similar statue installed in Mexico City in 1912 and preceding another installed on the University of Texas at Austin campus in February 1955. The Portland statue was created to commemorate the 1926 sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence and dedicated in 1927. It was part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. In June 2020, it was toppled by protestors.
The George Floyd protests were a series of riots and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, by city police during an arrest. They spread nationally and internationally. Veteran officer Derek Chauvin was recorded as kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds; Floyd complained of not being able to breathe, but three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested. In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.
This is a list of George Floyd protests in Alabama, United States. Protests occurred in fourteen various communities in the state.
This is a list of protests brought on by the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in Kentucky, United States. In 2020, there were protests throughout Kentucky in reaction to the shooting of Breonna Taylor and murder of George Floyd by police, as well as the shooting of David McAtee by the Kentucky Army National Guard. The demonstrations happened regularly in the largest cities in Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington. Many of the smaller cities had protests on at least one day.
The Norfolk Confederate Monument was a Confederate memorial in front of the Norfolk Southern Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. The monument was removed in June 2020.
A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed in Pioneer Park, San Francisco, California.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States, initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States, including police brutality and other forms of violence. Since the initial national wave and peak ended towards the end of 2020, numerous other incidents of police violence have drawn continued attention and lower intensity unrest in various parts of the country.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement have been created. These works are either seen as a direct tribute to those who have died or more broadly to the movement. Often the pieces are created in the streets as to be more publicly visible. As such several attempts have been made at preserving the art created in protest on the basis of their artistic merit and cultural significance. Increasingly, the erasure of the artwork has been a problem for preservationists. As such, the artworks below represent a fraction of the works created.
The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.
A number of monuments and memorials in Canada were removed or destroyed as a result of protests and riots between 2020 and 2022. These included six sculptures of Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, three of other figures connected to the Canadian Indian residential school system, two of Canadian monarchs, one of the British explorer Captain James Cook and one of John Deighton, a bar-owner whose nickname inspired the name of Vancouver's Gastown district.
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