Columbus Statue Loan Detailed

A pay-by-the-tour museum of New Haven artifacts and memorabilia borrowed the city’s Christopher Columbus statue for free — and can hold on to it for a year at a time, so long as it covers the cost of insuring and ​“safeguarding” the publicly owned artwork.

Those details are included in the nine-page Art Loan Agreement between the City of New Haven and Lost in New Haven, Inc. in regards to the Christopher Columbus statue that stood in Wooster Square Park from 1892 to 2020.

The Elicker administration announced last Friday that the statue, removed amid nationwide racial justice protests in June 2020 and tucked away for nearly five years in a Department of Public Works (DPW) facility, has now landed at Rob Greenberg’s museum at 80 Hamilton St.

Click here to read the Art Loan Agreement in full. 

Lost in New Haven is still not fully open to the public. Last Friday’s press release states that the museum is open by appointment and for guided weekend tours, and that it will ​“add more time-toured hours later this year.”

The Art Loan Agreement was signed by Greenberg on April 28 and by Mayor Justin Elicker on May 5. The Independent obtained a copy of the agreement on Monday.

It states that the city will lend the Columbus statue to Lost in New Haven for $0 for a term that runs through Feb. 28, 2026. That term will be renewed automatically for 12 months at a time, ​“unless, by the first business day of December immediately prior to the end of the applicable term, one of the parties hereto notifies the other of its intention not to renew.”

The agreement states that the borrower, Lost in New Haven, ​“must use professional museum standards and best practices as recommended by the American Alliance of Museums in the physical care of the loaned items, including handling, storage, and exhibition.”

Lost in New Haven must also maintain the loaned items — that is, the Columbus statue — ​“in the condition in which they were received and must not undertake any repairs, restoration, cleaning, or alterations of the loaned items without express permission of the Lender.”

The statue must remain at Lost in New Haven at 80 Hamilton St. ​“for the duration of the term, subject to the right of the Lender to sell or to lend to museums if requested for exhibition any or all Items covered by this Agreement.”

While Lost in New Haven is not required to pay the city any amount of money to borrow the statue, the museum is responsible for covering for all expenses related to packing and shipping the statue to and from the museum site. The borrower also ​“assumes full financial liability for damage to or loss of all loaned items covered in this agreement, including the cost of conservation and any reduction in value or replacement.” 

And the museum must ​“insure the Item wall-to-wall under its fine arts policy for the amount indicated as the insurance value” in the agreement. A so-called ​“Schedule A” attached to the agreement identifies the statue’s appraised value as $80,000, and its insurance value as $87,000.

The agreement also prohibits Lost in New Haven from reproducing images of the Columbus statue ​“except for exhibition-related educational, documentation, and publicity purposes.” The museum must get permission from the city before publishing the image in, for example, an exhibition catalog.

The agreement’s ​“Schedule A” also includes a brief history of the bronze statue, which was dedicated in 1892 and gifted from donations by Italian immigrants. ​“In 1955 a new statue was recast in bronze as the original heavy copper had deteriorated from a rough cleaning in 1930,” that narrative reads.

The agreement ends with a scanned copy of an Oct. 12, 1892, article in the New Haven Evening Register called ​“To Lay A Corner Stone.” The article describes the planned celebration of the laying of the cornerstone of the Columbus statue in Wooster Square. 

“The cornerstone will hold a metallic vox containing a number of coins and papers enclosed in a leather case,” that 1892 article reads. ​“There will be a written account of the proceedings of the day, together with a number of American, Italian and Spanish coins.”

That article continues: ​“The statue, nine feet in height, is to stand on a pedestal 11 feet high of granite and brown stone. The entire structure will cost about $1,500 and nearly all of the fund has been raised.”