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There are major changes planned more than two years after protesters tore down the Christopher Columbus statue in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood and threw it into the Inner Harbor.

The statue used to stand on a perch downtown at the bottom of President Street in green space that's still officially named Columbus Piazza. A dedication plaque along with the perch remains in the park, though the pedestal is now surrounded by an iron fence for protection.

Protesters pulled down the massive Italian Carrara marble piece on July 4, 2020, and threw it into the Inner Harbor.

Now, John Pica, the president of Italian American Organizations United, which commissioned the original statue and still owns it, said there are major changes in store.

"We're going to have a statue of an anonymous Italian immigrant, and ... the name (of the park) is going to get changed from the Columbus Piazza to Piazza Little Italy," said Pica, a former state senator.

Pica and his group fished the pieces of the statue out of the harbor and found them too damaged to repair. The group raised funds and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make a new statue. The replica was created by a sculptor on the Eastern Shore with a mold created from pieces of the original statue.

"It's finished, and now we're looking for an appropriate home for it," Pica said. "It won't go back to the city. The same thing could occur again. We don't want to take that risk."

Pica told 11 News the replica statue, and the pieces of the original, are both being stored in a secure warehouse on the Eastern Shore.

"It's finished, and now we're looking for an appropriate home for it," Pica said.

Monday marked Baltimore City's first official Indigenous Peoples Day. The holiday, previously known as Columbus Day, honors those who were living in the Americas before Columbus' arrival.

Some cities kept traditional Columbus Day commemorations. In New York City, groups laid wreaths at the base of the Columbus statue in Columbus Circle, and Boston dubbed Monday "Italian Americans Heritage Day."

Pica said, for many Italian Americans, this isn't about Columbus at all, but rather celebrating culture and heritage, which is the basis for the new statue.

Pica said he's working with Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen, D-District 1, on plans for more pedestals in the park that will honor all who lived in the area, including members of the Jewish community and Native Americans.

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