Pittsburgh officials are allowing a controversial statue of Christopher Columbus to remain mostly uncovered as a lawsuit over the monument’s future stretches into its fifth year. The controversial monument that stands in Schenley Park was wrapped in plastic in October 2020 as it became the center of a legal battle over whether it should be removed.

Most of the covering has since been ripped away by weather, said Olga George, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Gainey. Plastic now covers only the base of the statue, and the rest is visible. In 2020, then-Mayor Bill Peduto and the city’s art commission wanted to remove the statue amid concerns it glorified a man who mistreated native inhabitants of the New World he’s credited with discovering.