The Danish sculptor of a statue that commemorates pro-democracy protesters killed during China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown has asked Hong Kong authorities for immunity from a national security law so he can take it back to Denmark.
Jens Galschiot loaned the eight-metre high, two-tonne copper sculpture called Pillar of Shame to a local civil society group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, in perpetuity. The statue, depicting dozens of torn and twisted bodies, has been on display at the University of Hong Kong for more than two decades. After the alliance disbanded in September with some members accused of national security offences, the university requested the group remove the statue from its premises.
