This is a precise replica of the face of Robert E. Lee as it appeared shortly after it was torched from the Charlottesville, Virginia statue in 2023.
It is made of reconstituted limestone, bronze composite, bronze powder, acrylic, and is sealed against oxidation with an extremely hard wax.
The original statue was created between 1917 and 1924, when it was dedicated and installed in Charlottesville, Virginia's Market Street Park. In 1997, the monument was added to the National Register of Historical Places. Despite significant protest, the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the statue in 2017. The Virginia Supreme Court ultimately allowed the city to remove the statue four years later, when it was taken down and placed into storage.
Five months after its removal, the city council again voted, this time to donate the statue to a heritage organization that pitched a project to smelt it. Despite nearly two years of lawsuits, the statue was transported to a foundry. There, the face was cut from the statue with an acetylene torch, then smelted in a furnace.
The statue exhibited signs of significant damage at the foundry, particularly to the nose and the eyes. This replica captures that damage. This replica also shows the precise cuts of the acetylene torch at the foundry that were made when removing the face from the head.
This replica is human life size, 25 cm tall, and weighs 330 grams.
