Hong Kong memorial to Tiananmen victims may be imminently removed

Hong Kong’s oldest university erected security barriers around a statue mourning those killed in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 and posted guards at the site late on Wednesday, in a move that prompted fears that the artwork was to be imminently removed.

The 8-metre-high Pillar of Shame by the Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt has sat on the University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus since 1997, the year the city was handed back to China.

In October, HKU officials ordered the removal of the sculpture, which features 50 anguished faces and tortured bodies piled on one another and commemorates the pro-democracy protesters killed by Chinese troops around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Late on Wednesday, university staff used floor-to-ceiling sheets and plastic barriers to shield the statue from view, and construction noise could be heard, according to eye witnesses at the scene.

Security guards have blocked reporters from approaching and tried to stop media outlets from filming, and a cargo container was placed on the ground near the statue. The university has not clarified whether the statue is being removed.

Galschiøt told the Guardian he was “shocked and saddened” by the latest development. “I’ve asked the Hong Kong University to allow me to go and collect it in person, but I received no response,” he said. “If they destroy my work, I’ll seek compensation and demand the remaining pieces to be returned to Europe.”

“This is not about the national security law. This is my private property. It’s the Hong Kong law that says the authorities cannot destroy private properties like this.”

Earlier, the artist sent an email to supporters encouraging them to “document everything that happens with the sculpture”. “We have done everything we can to tell [HKU] that we would very much like to pick up the sculpture and bring it to Denmark,” it said.