RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia panel has recommended moving the state’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at the U.S. Capitol to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that historian Ed Ayers made the motion to ask whether the museum wants to take ownership of the statue. He says the museum has “the institutional capacity” to deal with accepting the statue and “the curatorial expertise.”
Emily Lucier is a spokesperson for the museum. She told the newspaper in an email that the museum has not yet received a formal request from the commission and will comment when that happens.
The eight-member Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol voted unanimously last month to take down the Lee statute. Like every other state, Virginia has two representatives in the Statuary Hall Collection. The other is George Washington. Virginia picked Lee for one of its statues in 1909.
The panel has recommended replacing Lee with another yet-to-be named Virginian amid national discussions about removing controversial symbols.
