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Crews remove the Christopher Columbus statue from its pedestal the morning of July 24, 2020. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
City officials in July 2020\u00a0removed Columbus statues from Grant Park, Arrigo Park and South Chicago\u2019s Drake Fountain<\/a> after the monuments attracted protests, vandalism and calls for their removal from critics highlighting Columbus\u2019s legacy of colonial violence. Onesti\u2019s committee filed a lawsuit over the Arrigo Park statue removal<\/a> the following year, sparking several years of negotiations with the Chicago Park District over the future of the statue.<\/p>\n Last year, the Arrigo Park statue was given to the committee as a part of a settlement to build a replacement statue dedicated to Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. As part of the deal, Onesti pledged to display the Arrigo Park statue inside the museum.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the statue came down, I started asking questions about who actually owns it,\u201d Onesti said. \u201cI found out we had a contract with the city of Chicago that the statue could not be altered, or altered in any way, without the express written consent of us because we actually paid for the statue in the \u201960s. \u2026 So we eventually came to this deal, and they told us it had to be indoors, but we wanted to keep it in the neighborhood, because that\u2019s important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Onesti found the vacant property on Taylor Street in 2024 and has been involved in structural renovations to the building ever since. He initially hoped for an August opening to coincide with the Taylor Street Festival, which his company runs, but couldn\u2019t finish renovations in time.<\/p>\n The museum\u2019s exterior paint job was mostly finished by Thursday ahead of the street festival, Onesti said. The building\u2019s brick facade is painted white and adorned with red-and-green lettering reading \u201cFlorence Scala Chicago Italian American Museum\u201d and \u201cChicago\u2019s Historic Little Italy\u201d over the front entrance.<\/p>\n The interior, currently being used for storage for the festival, is a single room replete with exposed brick and wood flooring. With structural renovations complete, Onesti said most of the remaining work left to do \u2014 which he expects to be completed in about four weeks \u2014 is cosmetic.<\/p>\n Due to the size of the statue, Onesti is planning on creating a large hole in the ceiling to lower it onto the center platform, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cSo we thought, \u2018How can you get the statue in here?\u2019 It\u2019s 4,500 pounds,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just wheel it in because of the floors. So what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re putting a hole in the roof. We\u2019re gonna have to crane it down.\u201d<\/p>\n The statue is currently being cleaned inside of a Park District warehouse, according to Onesti. A spokesperson for the Park District did not respond to a request for comment from Block Club.<\/p>\n The museum will include a chronological history of Italians in Chicago, beginning in the 1600s when Italian-born Henri de Tonti moved through the area with the French military. The majority of the exhibit will be dedicated to the history of Italian immigration from 1880-1970, highlighting the struggles, culinary contributions and upward mobility of the community in Chicago.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG-8634.jpg\")
Chicago police guard a statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park, after demonstrators spray painted it and tried to pull it down during a protest in support of Black and Indigenous people on July 17, 2020. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n