The controversial "Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Soldier" statue removed from a Dallas park in 2017 and sold to the highest bidder earlier this month was packed up and moved Thursday.
After securing the 16,500-pound statue on a trailer Thursday morning, workers built a frame around the statue to secure it for transport to its new home.
Dallas City Council members approved the sale of the statue with two restrictions: that it be sold for more than the cost to remove it from Lee Park, which was roughly $450,000, and that it was not to be publicly displayed in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. If the statue is sold again, any subsequent purchaser must also comply with that restriction.
The bidder, who offered $1,435,000 for the statue, was confirmed in a report from The Dallas Morning News as Addision lawyer Ronald Holmes. According to the DMN, it's not clear if Holmes purchased the statue for himself, the firm or as an agent for another buyer. It's also not clear where the statue will be taken.
The statue has been in storage since it was removed from Lee Park in 2017, which, incidentally, was renamed Turtle Creek Park later that year.
Robert E. Lee Statue Removed from Dallas' Lee Park
The 1936 bronze sculpture by artist Alexander Phimister Proctor shows General Robert E. Lee riding his horse slightly ahead of a young soldier riding a smaller horse. The sculpture was restored in 1991.
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NBC 5's Frank Heinz, Ken Kalthoff and Kendall Jarboe contributed to this report.
