"Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: ‘Like his face was crying’" by Nora Neus (The Guardian).
"The melting was the culmination of a years-long effort to remove the Confederate statue from downtown Charlottesville. The issue became a flashpoint in 2016, and sparked a deadly white nationalist riot a year later, in 2017, which resulted in the death of the counter-protester Heather Heyer and two police officers, whose helicopter crashed.
After a series of lawsuits, the statue was finally removed in 2021 to much fanfare. It had been sitting in a warehouse in an undisclosed location until even more lawsuits made their way through the justice system. Then, on 26 September this year, the final lawsuit ended. The statue could be melted down."