Five years ago, Louisville was awash in protests.
Louisville police officers had killed Breonna Taylor during a surprise nighttime raid in March. Just two months later, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.
Through it all, in downtown Louisville stood an oversized marble statue of the last French king: Louis XVI. On the first night of protests, a man hung off Louis’ outstretched hand, breaking it off.
Over time, protesters added layers of anti-police graffiti. But it doesn’t appear people were targeting King Louis, the person, specifically.
“This statue happened to be in front of a building that was central to the protests, and so it made for an easy target,” Chris Reitz, former head of the city’s appointed public art board, said.
The city put Louis in storage in September 2020. Three months later, the Louisville Metro Council voted to "seek, if feasible" cleaning the statue and putting it back where it was.
Since then, four art conservation companies have given Louis XVI a check up. Three said that years outside — and some previous pressure washing — contributed to cracks in the marble. Reitz said it’s unsafe.
“The statue is damaged beyond repair. The statue cannot go back outside,” Reitz said. “It has been through too many freeze and thaw cycles. It is a marble statue. You can do marble outside in parts of Europe. It's not appropriate where we make bourbon.”
Earlier this year, a company called Pacific Coast Conservation did what they could to fill the cracks. They also reattached the hand and some fingers that had broken off. In a report, they noted they weren’t sure how deep the cracks went and they urged that a marble specialist take another look.
But that’s where they stopped, said Lucinda Linderman, the company’s senior conservator on the project.
“Ethically, we can't remove the graffiti until the community that was involved in the civil protest kind of decides how to move forward,” Linderman said. “This is now part of the history of the sculpture.”
The city did conduct a public survey. LPM News obtained the results through an open records request.
Out of about 500 responses, 75% selected a choice that said King Louis XVI should be “repaired and put back on view.” Most of the responses were from predominantly white ZIP codes in Louisville. In an open comment box, they also gave lots of varying opinions on what that would actually look like.
Linderman said her company felt the survey wasn’t enough for them to move forward.
“I mean, we've flat out refused. Our hands are tied ethically,” Linderman said. “Those people that were part of the civil protest should be involved in the decision-making.”
There was one possible solution that could have gotten the statue off the city’s list of debates: the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage. It was interested in keeping the statue indoors and with the graffiti left on. The museum’s executive director did not respond to requests for comment.
Metro Council didn’t pursue that option.
“The council wasn't interested in that solution, because, again, the council wants it restored,” said Metro Council Member Anthony Piagentini, chair of the council’s Republican caucus.
Piagentini said the elected Metro Council voted overwhelmingly nearly five years ago to start the process of repairing the statue and putting it back. He said the “feasibility” language was focused on the physical possibility of fixing the statue, not on cost feasibility.
In the Dec. 10, 2020, meeting, several council members expressed interest in making sure the cost was reasonable. An amendment to formally seek public comment on the statue and the costs associated narrowly failed.
“I would hate to think that we allowed someone to make the argument that we can’t afford to recover from this past summer. I just think that sends the wrong message,” Democrat Markus Winkler said, arguing against seeking public comment on the costs. “It leaves folks with the impression somehow that this was the intent of the protests and it wasn’t.”
Others argued that asking for public input on the costs on this one item would set up a slippery slope that would require comment on all sorts of allocations. They said they were elected, so let them speak for their constituents.
Metro Council put $200,000 toward King Louis XVI repairs in the current approved executive budget. The mayor’s proposed budget was ambiguous on what repairing King Louis would exactly entail. But the final version — amended by council members — clarified that graffiti must be removed by June 30, 2025.
“The message is this: Vandalism is illegal, and if you vandalize public property, you should be arrested, and the public property should be restored,” Piagentini said.
Piagentini said the ethical concerns with removing the graffiti and the lengthy input process that conservators require is so vague it’s clear to him their standards are “made up.” He (along with fellow Council Member Ken Herndon) have characterized arguments around costs and the statue’s ability to withstand weathering as "excuses.”
At this point, he’s simply frustrated the job isn’t done.
“It is time for them to do it and for them to stop ignoring the will of the people,” Piagentini said.
Chris Reitz resigned last week over the city’s adamance on spending $200,000 to fix up a single fragile statue. He said that sends “a message” about how Louisville invests in public art that he can’t be a part of.
“I have met with city council members, and I do think that they have sincerely held beliefs…beliefs having to do with policing in the city and crime,” Reitz said. “We can have those conversations. Where it stops for me is where we say, ‘Let's take taxpayer dollars and throw it into a statue that really cannot support that kind of conservation in order to — something.’ And it's…what is left unsaid that bothers me.”
The city put out a new bid request seeking conservators who are willing to remove the graffiti. Submissions are now closed and it’s unclear if any accredited art conservationists will be interested in the job, as the industry organization American Institute for Conservation has signaled they view this as a contested monument.
Piagentini said if a “professional” won’t remove the graffiti, he’s sure somebody else will.
