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A statue of Jefferson Davis has been removed from its place on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin after a failed appeal by a Confederate heritage group. Crews could be seen Sunday morning removing the statue of the Confederate president from its place near the university's iconic clock tower.

*Taller than famous Rio de Janiero and Lisbon statues*Intended as symbol of rebirth of Russian Far East and rebirth of ChristianityThe statue was cast in 2013 by Tsereteli, the famous Georgian-Russian sculptor, known for his gigantic projects such as a statue of Peter the Great in Moscow and ‘The Tear of Grief’ in the United States, dedicated to the struggle against world terrorism. The monument stands 50 metres taller than the world famous ‘Christ the Redeemer’ in Rio de Janeiro, and two metres higher than ‘The Christ the King’ in Lisbon. In Vladivostok, the monument will be composed of two...

UT-Austin President Gregory Fenves announced that the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis will soon have a new home. UT is relocating the Davis statue to an exhibit in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

A statue of Woodrow Wilson may be removed from the University of Texas statuary because of the underlying intent of the effigy, which was commissioned by a Confederate veteran who admired Wilson's presidency. A task force was assigned the duty of explaining why the statues need to come down, or at the very least have a plaque added which will provide some "historical context." The reasoning behind the task force's recommendation is explained in its report. Six of the seven statues featured at the university were commissioned in 1916 by Confederate veteran and the school's largest initial benefactor George Littlefield...

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said Tuesday the process is underway to remove the Confederate statue from the Red Brick Courthouse grounds in Rockville. Leggett said in a phone interview with Bethesda Beat that the county is getting estimates from contractors to remove the statue, which he expects to receive by the end of the week. “We’re in the process of getting it done,” Leggett said. The county executive said the county hasn’t decided where to relocate the statue once it’s removed from the courthouse grounds. “The removal question is resolved,” Leggett said. “The only question now is where it...

Detroit has many problems.  Here is another.From ABC: Threats Force Satan Statue Unveiling to Secret Detroit VenueAn 8½-foot-tall bronze monument featuring a goat-headed Satan will be unveiled at a secret, ticketed event in Detroit after the owner of a popular restaurant and entertainment complex backed out and opponents issued threats, organizers said.The 1½-ton Baphomet, which is backed by an inverted pentagram and flanked by statues of two young children gazing up at the creature, [?!?] shows Satan with horns, hooves, wings and a beard.The Satanic Temple, a group that advocates for the separation of church and state, [Therefore, allies of...

Is this bolder than what Haley did or not as bold? Davis may not hold the same cultural currency as a symbol of southern pride that the flag does, but Haley had less to lose in making her move than Bevin does. She’s the term-limited governor of South Carolina; he’s the GOP nominee for governor in Kentucky. If there’s a broader southern backlash coming to all of the criticism of Confederate iconography this past week, he’ll pay for it more than she will.

The historic Christian Syrian town of Maalula celebrated Saturday as a new statue of Mary, worshiped in Christianity as the mother of Jesus, was erected in its center, replacing the figure destroyed in rebel attacks in 2013. Dozens of families gathered alongside government officials and religious dignitaries in the main square, which was adorned with government flags and a giant portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Located north of Damascus, Maalula is one of the world's oldest Christian settlements, and its inhabitants still speak Aramaic, a language spoken by Jews in Israel at the time Jesus was said to have...

DALLAS (AP) - Pity Jefferson Davis, if you will. Vandals have defaced his statue on the University of Texas campus, most recently with the words "Davis must fall" and "Emancipate UT." Student leaders are also seeking to remove from the Austin campus the century-old statue that recognizes the president of the Confederacy. "We thought, there are those old ties to slavery and some would find it offensive," said senior Jamie Nalley, who joined an overwhelming majority of the Student Government in adopting a resolution in March supporting his ouster. But as students take aim at Davis, the number of sites...

Pope Francis weighed in on a thorny topic in California history Saturday when he spoke at length at a Rome Mass about Father Junipero Serra, the controversial California mission founder set to become America's first Latino saint later this year. Addressing an audience that included many American priests, including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the pope referred to the 18th century Franciscan priest as “one of the founding fathers of the United States” and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the New World. I wonder if...

... Statues of ... historical figures stand in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall, where each state has two representatives cast in bronze or marble ... [Father Junipero] Serra could be the first and only actual saint in Statuary Hall -- Pope Francis recently announced plans to canonize him -- yet he's also a polarizing figure. Is it time to send Serra to the sidelines (or more accurately, move his statue to the California Capitol grounds)? ... Take our pointedly unreliable poll, leave a comment or do both! ...

Lucille Ball’s hometown, just outside Jamestown in western New York, erected a life-size statue to honor the beloved actress — but now it has some explaining to do. Many take issue with the sculptor’s unflattering depiction of the “I Love Lucy” star. A self-described “big fan of Lucy’s” from Jamestown thinks the statue needs to be replaced with one befitting the comedy legend. “Lucille Ball was not only an amazing comedienne, but she was a stunning beauty. Her sense of humor only made her more beautiful,” he said in an interview with Yahoo News. “This statue looks nothing like the...

The unveiling of a new statue built to memorialize the murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on Saturday at the Homeland Security Department's Brian Terry Border Patrol Station in Bisbee, Arizona, received minimal news coverage by the nation's media except for the Fox News Channel, a news agency maligned and denigrated by President Barack Obama and his administration. In fact, no official from the Obama government attended the event and the sycophants in the legacy media made certain not to cover the story. In the battle at the Mexican-U.S. border, Obama and his minions seem to have chosen the...

It would have given great offense, had anyone known it was there. For the first half of the 20th century, an eight-foot-tall marble statue of the Prophet Muhammad overlooked Madison Square Park from the rooftop of the Appellate Division Courthouse at Madison Avenue and 25th Street. Sixty years ago, the statue was quietly removed, in an episode that now looks, in light of recent events in Paris, like the model of tact, restraint and diplomacy. What had spared the sensibilities of Muslim passers-by from 1902 to 1955 was that “Muhammad,” by the Mexican sculptor Charles Albert Lopez, was among nine...

WILKES-BARRE, Pa., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A stolen life-sized statue of United States President Barack Obama was has been returned to its Northern Pennsylvania owner after being discovered on a nearby picnic bench with an empty six-pack of Twisted Tea and a cigarette butt hanging from its mouth.The statue was a staple of the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., neighborhood it was stolen from, where owner Tiffany Bruce prominently displayed it on her porch and decorated it for holidays."I peeked my head out the door and Obama's gone and I kind of went into a panic," described a distressed Bruce when the statue...

It may seem absurd—or given the moral state of the nation, appropriate—but the grounds committee for the Oklahoma State Capitol, the Preservation Commission, has been asked by The Satanic Temple, a group from New York, to place a privately-funded statue of Satan, complete with pentagram and two fawning children at Lucifer’s knee, on the Capitol grounds near a monument of the Ten Commandments.In the statue, which is to be cast in bronze and is near completion, Satan is depicted as “Baphomet” with a goat’s head and horns, and there is a boy on his left and a girl on his...

A controversial statue in the small Michigan town of Adrian provided a worthy topic for a Fox News crew of humorists. Greg Gutfeld and his “Red Eye Debate Center” sidekicks had fun bantering with a provocative work of art, which upset enough Adrian citizens to have it removed from city hall grounds to a less conspicuous spot in the park. Sculptor Mark Chatterley’s unorthodox statue, depicting seven people relying on each other and entitled “Blue Human Condition,” outraged enough residents who nicknamed it “The Orgy Statue” to invoke from Gutfeld’s cohorts a bevy of one-liners.

Execution Her hair has been shorn Her face cut and bruised Her flowing gown torn The beauty once in her eyes Faded Drone strikes Warrant less searches Roadblocks and pat downs Eaves dropping Secret eyes and ears Always listening Always watching Be careful what you do Or they may come after you Swat teams and armored cars Men clad in black Weapons at the ready Waiting to attack They have her now Imprisoned Cold shackles hold her hands Her breath is low and shallow Seems that death Is now at hand

There are a few basic rules in museums. The first: don’t touch the art. The second: don’t take selfies while touching the art. At a museum in Milan, Italy, a student reportedly broke that second rule: he climbed on a statue dating back to the early 19th century to take a selfie and caused the statue’s left leg to fall off. The discovery was made on Tuesday morning by the staff of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, one of Italy’s most renowned academic institutions, and it was apparently also recorded by security cameras. The statue depicts the “Drunken...

A brief video of Lenin statues being torn down across Ukraine.