HKFP reports
The Danish sculptor behind a monument to those who died in the Tiananmen crackdown has considered taking legal action against the University of Hong Kong (HKU), which the artist said has repeatedly ignored his requests to retrieve the statue.
The eight-metre-tall Pillar of Shame stood on the main HKU campus for 24 years before being torn down in the middle of the night in December 2021, with the university citing safety reasons and “legal risks” under the city’s colonial-era Crimes Ordinance. That October, HKU’s law firm had written to the the organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen crackdown vigil to demand removal of the monument by 5 p.m. on October 13. However, the group had disbanded the previous month.
According to correspondence seen by HKFP, lawyers acting on behalf of Jens Galschiøt contacted HKU on October 12, saying that the artist was the rightful owner of the sculpture and was “willing and… prepared” to remove it from HKU. An extension of three months was requested to arrange its retrieval.
Galschiøt’s representatives did not hear back from HKU’s legal team until December 24, the day after the monument had been taken down and placed into a steel storage container.
“If your client maintains his claim to be the rightful owner of the Statue, please liaise with us for the arrangement to collect it from our client’s storage as soon as practicable,” solicitors representing HKU said in the letter to Galschiøt’s lawyers, seen by HKFP.
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