Six years after its statue of Christopher Columbus was unceremoniously dumped into Baltimore’s harbor, an organization of Italian Americans has raised more than $200,000 to replace it with a new memorial with a different theme. The group, known as Italian American Organizations United, wil l hold a news conference on Wednesday, July 1, to outline plans for the replacement. It’s being held at the site of the vandalized statue, a plaza near the intersection of South President Street and Eastern Avenue, just west of Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood. It’s taking place almost exactly six years after the statue was ripped from its pedestal and thrown into Baltimore’s harbor. The new statue is called the Anonymous Italian Immigrant Family Memorial. According to a media alert about Wednesday’s event, it will depict “an Italian immigrant husband alongside his wife holding their infant child.” Measuring seven feet tall, three feet wide and four feet deep, the sculpture will be securely mounted on the same seven-foot-high pedestal that supported the Columbus statue. The octagonal pedestal has been empty since the Columbus statue was taken down (except for an incident several weeks ago when pranksters put a toilet on top of it.) The footprint of the replacement memorial was kept tight specifically so it could fit atop the existing pedestal. The artist is Sebastian Martorana, a Baltimore resident, noted sculptor and founder and sole proprietor of Atlantic Custom Carving LLC, the local studio that has a contract with Italian American Organizations United to create the memorial. Martorana has a master’s degree from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his work has been shown at the Walters Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and many other places. “We have an artist and we’re moving forward,” John Pica, the President of Italian American Organizations United and a former state senator, said on Tuesday. “We’re ordering the marble tomorrow.” The empty pedestal where the Christopher Columbus statue stood in Little Italy. Photo credit: Ed Gunts. Preserving history Italian American Organizations United is a coalition of groups from throughout Maryland that are dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history, heritage and contributions of Italian Americans. It was launched in 1983 to raise funds for the original Columbus statue, which was created by Italian sculptor Mauro Bigarani and dedicated on Oct. 8, 1984, in a ceremony led by former President Ronald Reagan and then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer. For years the statue was the centerpiece of a public plaza just south of the Scarlett Place condominium building at 250 S. President St. The statue was torn off its pedestal and thrown into the Lower Jones Falls on July 4, 2020, by protestors following the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident who died after a police officer knelt on his neck and back for more than nine minutes. It was one of more than 30 cases in which statues and monuments around the country were vandalized that spring and summer. No one was ever arrested for the Baltimore incident. Pica’s group fished fragments of the toppled Columbus statue out of the harbor, including two thirds of the head and chunks of the torso, but they were too damaged to reassemble. The group commissioned a Maryland artist, Will Hemsley, to create a replica of the Columbus statue but was reluctant to put it in the same location for fear that it would also be damaged and sought other options. “We have to find a place to put that statue,” Pica said during a meeting of the Little Italy Neighborhood Association in 2024. “We offered it to Father [Bernard] Carman [at St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Little Italy[, who is afraid of the controversy. We’ve offered it to others. They really don’t want the controversy. So we’re really looking for an appropriate place to put it.” The Columbus statue replica cost $100,000 to create. In March, it was installed outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington D. C. Dedication in late 2027 Pica said the Anonymous Italian Immigrant Family Memorial will be made of Italian Carrara marble, as was the Columbus statue, and the stone will take some time to travel from Italy to Baltimore once the order is placed. He said his group hopes the artist will be able to complete the memorial in time for installation in the fall of 2027. The 1984 statue’s dedication coincided with Columbus Day that year, but Pica said the completion date for the replacement likely will be in December rather than October. The pedestal is owned by the Italian American Organizations United and sits on land owned by the City of Baltimore. Pica said the pedestal will remain mostly the way it is and three new plaques will be added to the fence that surrounds it. One plaque will recognize the donors and public officials who helped make the Italian immigrant memorial possible. A second plaque will recognize the ethnic groups that lived in the area before the arrival of Italian immigrants, including Jewish and African American residents. The third plaque will honor the D’Alesandro family, including Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. and Thomas D’Alesandro III, both former mayors of Baltimore, and Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives and daughter of Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.   Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. served three terms as mayor, from 1947 to 1959, and was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1947. Thomas D’Alesandro III was Baltimore’s mayor from 1967 to 1971. Pica said he’s hopeful that Pelosi, who grew up in Little Italy, will be able to attend the dedication of the new memorial when it’s scheduled. He noted that funds for it were raised in addition to the $100,000 previously secured by his group to replicate the Columbus statue. “We’re ecstatic that we have raised the funds needed to bring this memorial to life,” Pica said. “This effort reflects the resiliency and determination of the Italian American community. It preserves the legacy of the generations who came before us while creating a lasting tribute for future generations of Italian Americans to admire.” ...read more read less