Actor Ben Stiller has suggested replacing a statue of the former President Theodore Roosevelt with one of the late Robin Williams.
The 54-year-old's comments came in response to the news that the bronze statue, which has been outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, will be taken down due to the recent debate surrounding race issues in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement, which has seen a resurgence since the May 25th death of George Floyd while in police custody.
Stiller took to Twitter to suggest that his Night at the Museum co-star get a statue to replace Roosevelt's, writing: "How about replacing it with a statue of Robin Williams. He deserves one."
Per the New York Times, the removal of the monument was proposed by the museum and agreed to by the City of New York, which owns the property.
The publication details that the statue, which shows Roosevelt on a horse flanked by a Native American and an African man, has long been considered controversial due to its depiction of colonialism and racism.
"Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd," the museum’s president, Ellen V. Futter, told the New York Times. "We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism."
Futter detailed that the institution is removing the statue for its "hierarchical composition" and not because of Roosevelt himself, whom the museum refers to as a "pioneering conservationist."
Williams, who died by suicide in 2014, starred alongside Stiller in the Night at the Museum franchise, where he played a character based on Roosevelt.
