The former Christopher Columbus Monument, located in the Little Italy neighborhood of downtown Baltimore, was designed by Mauro Bigarani and unveiled by then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Gifted to the city by the Italian American Organizations United of Maryland, the marble statue’s base bears the inscription “Discoverer of America,” and depicts the three ships of the Columbus fleet: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Though considered a hero by many Italian Americans, Columbus also perpetrated violence against indigenous people—and initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade. On July 4th, 2020, as part of nationwide demonstrations against the murder of George Floyd, the monument was pulled down by protesters and dumped into the Inner Harbor. Two days later, the Knights of Columbus retrieved the statue, but it had broken into 12 pieces and was deemed unsalvageable. The Knights of Columbus announced they would reproduce the statue, and received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to do so. The base still stands, surrounded by a small fence, in what is known as the Columbus Piazza in Little Italy, Baltimore, at Eastern Avenue and President Street.