The mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, is defending the decision to permanently remove two statues of Christopher Columbus from public parks.

The statues were initially removed by Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, amid protests in 2020. During the protests that broke out after the death of George Floyd, protesters routinely targeted statues of Columbus with vandalism. 

The issue of their future resurfaced when the park district CEO, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, appointed by Mr. Johnson, announced a deal to loan one of the statues to an Italian immigrant museum, and it was determined that neither statue would be returned to the parks. 

Mr. Johnson told reporters, “Art and culture, in particular, is something that I don’t believe we should erase.”

However, he said, “We do have to make sure that our presentation is depicting not just truth, but the best part of our existence, which is our collective humanity.”

The president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, Ron Onesti, also defended the decision to loan one of the statues to the museum, telling reporters it is “what the community wants.”

“You have to understand the options,” Mr. Onesti said. “The city owns the statue and could have done anything. It could have been melted down to Columbus keychains.”

Yet the head of the Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago, Lou Rago, said the deal is a “burial.”

“The statue will be hidden away indoors — out of public sight — as part of an undefined ‘museum-style’ exhibit,” he said. “A sad final disposition of a statue of the heroic navigator whose voyages led to the introduction of Western European civilization and culture to a new world.”

Mr. Johnson also tried to draw a distinction between the Columbus statues and a controversial pro-Palestinian puppet that his administration has kept up at the Chicago Cultural Center. The puppet features bloodied caricatures of Uncle Sam and Prime Minister Netanyahu and calls them “children killers.” In February, a majority of the Chicago city council signed a letter calling for the exhibit to be taken down.

Yet Mr. Johnson says the puppet is “art” and is “not necessarily telling you you should honor their opinion or their thought.” By contrast, he said a statue is a “monument” that “solidifies a position” and suggests the city is “honoring” that view.