Thomas Jefferson statue removed from NYC City Hall because former US president, author of Declaration of Independence owned slaves

A statue of Thomas Jefferson — America's third president and the author of the Declaration of Independence — was removed Monday from City Hall in New York City, where it stood for nearly two centuries, because Jefferson was a slave owner, the New York Post reported.

What are the details?

About a dozen art handlers with Marshall Fine Arts spent several hours carefully removing the 884-pound statue from its pedestal in City Council chambers and packing it in a wooden crate before moving it out the back door, the Post said.

The 1833 statue will be on long-term loan to the New York Historical Society, the paper said, adding that the plan is to place the statue in the NYHS lobby and reading room.

"Removing a monument without a public conversation about why it's happening is useless. New Yorkers all need to talk about who we want to honor and why," Erin Thompson, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor, told the paper.