The Columbus statue in Arrigo Park will be “loaned” to a civic group for display in a new Chicago Museum of Italian Immigration on Taylor Street, under a deal that the group hopes could be a prelude to returning another Columbus statue to Grant Park.
The settlement between the Chicago Park District and the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans resolves a long-running lawsuit filed by the group after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot removed both Columbus statues from their pedestals after they became targets of vandalism during the civic unrest following the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Both Columbus statues have been in storage ever since in a park district warehouse on the South Side.
Instead of returning the Columbus statue to its pedestal in Arrigo Park on the Near West Side, the statue will be indefinitely “loaned” to the Joint Civic Committee for display at a soon-to-be renovated building at 1501 W. Taylor Street that once housed a dry cleaning store.
That building is now being converted into a Chicago Museum of Italian Immigrants, which makes it ideal for the Columbus statue, according to Ron Onesti, president of that Italian American group.
“The community wanted our statues back for what it represents, and this settlement is allowing us to do that,” Onesti told the Sun-Times. “Here are the wins: No. 1., it’s in a safe situation. No 2., it’s the central focus point of the story of Italian immigration in Chicago. No. 3, it’s still on Taylor Street.”
The settlement calls for the Columbus statue in Arrigo Park to be replaced with a new statue of another prominent Italian American commissioned by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events after a community engagement process.
If Onesti has his way, the honor would go to Mother Cabrini, who was “very big in that neighborhood.”
“She was the patron saint of the immigrant. She also created Cabrini Hospital, over 60 orphanages, schools and hospitals around the world. … She was a pioneering woman of Italian extraction who made a difference with immigrants in Chicago,” Onesti said.
Once the Arrigo dispute is resolved with a signed deal approved by a judge, Onesti said the Columbus statue in Grant Park will be the “next topic of discussion.”
Onesti wants the Columbus statue to be returned to its pedestal in Grant Park with security measures that could include surveillance cameras and plexiglass to protect it.
He pointed to what Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Clinee Hedspeth said in justifying her refusal to remove a puppet display that Jewish leaders viewed as antisemitic from the city-owned Cultural Center.
“She made a statement that the city must defend artwork, regardless of whether it’s controversial or not. That’s exactly what we’re saying … about what to do with the Columbus statue in Grant Park,” Onesti said.
Hours after the Sun-Times disclosed the settlement, the Park District issued a press release confirming the agreement. It stated that the Park District would “remove the plinth” or pedestal that “anchored the Grant Park Columbus monument restoring public access to this section of the park” and start “facilitating a process to determine which new public art will” call that “corner of Grant Park home.”
Newly appointed Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said the Park District said he looks forward to “convening the process to determine which Italian American will be honored in Arrigo Park and which artworks will replace the Grant Park plinth.”
Three years ago, Onesti demanded that Lightfoot apologize for obscene and derogatory remarks that another lawsuit claimed she made about Italian Americans during a phone call to discuss the Columbus statue removed from Arrigo Park.
On the call, Lightfoot berated a pair of former high-ranking park district officials, according to their lawsuit.
“You d–ks, what the f–k were you thinking?” Lightfoot was quoted as saying in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Lightfoot went on to accuse the two of making “some kind of secret agreement with Italians. What you are doing? You are out there measuring your d–ks with the Italians, seeing whose got the biggest d–k. … I am trying to keep Chicago police officers from being shot, and you are trying to get them shot.”
During the negotiations, Onesti said Johnson told him, “That was her. Not me.”
Onesti added: “There’s something to be said about the ability to discuss the issue with this administration. That’s why this whole lawsuit happened. We couldn’t get a meeting with anybody. They wouldn’t talk to us.”
Onesti was asked whether there is any circumstance under which he would accept a location for the second Columbus statue other than Grant Park.
“Not at this point. Nothing’s been presented to us. We want it in Grant Park where that big, beautiful base is,” he said.