‘Pillar of Shame’ sculptor to ask Denmark to negotiate for artwork’s return

The creator of a sculpture commemorating those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown will ask Danish authorities to negotiate with Hong Kong for its return, with city officials disputing his claims of owning the confiscated artwork.

The fate of the “Pillar of Shame” sculpture has come back under the spotlight after the High Court on Friday handed jail sentences to three former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China at the end of a high-profile national security trial.

In a reply to the South China Morning Post, Danish artist Jens Galschiot said he intended to ask his government to officially declare the eight-metre-tall (26-foot) sculpture a work of art and part of his country’s cultural heritage so it could be returned to “its rightful owner”.

He revealed he had raised the issue with the Danish parliament’s foreign policy committee, adding that a cross-party group of the European Parliament and the European Union’s Hong Kong office had also followed up on the matter.

“For me, the issue is quite simple: the ‘Pillar of Shame’ is my sculpture,” Galschiot said.

“It was never given away. It should not be confiscated or destroyed because of its political symbolism or because it commemorates the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre.”

In its verdict last month, the court found the now-disbanded alliance had incited supporters to undermine the Communist Party’s leadership by advocating the group’s operational objective of ending “one-party dictatorship” in mainland China.