The controversial statue of President Theodore Roosevelt that sat outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1940 was entirely removed by Thursday.

NPR and The Washington Post reported that the removal began this week, and by Thursday, the only things remaining were scaffolding and a tarp.

In June, the New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously to relocate the statue, which depicted the 26th President on horseback with a Native American man and an African man flanking the horse.

In November, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota agreed to take the statue on a long-term loan.

In 1925, the bronze statue was commissioned by the New York State Roosevelt Memorial and placed on the museum's steps since 1940, according to the museum's website.

A statue honoring George Floyd in New York City’s Union Square Park was vandalized on Sunday, police said.

According to police, a video showed an unidentified man on a skateboard throwing paint on the statue at approximately 10 a.m. then fleeing. Nearby statues of late Congressman John Lewis and Breonna Taylor, a Louisville, Kentucky, woman shot and killed by police last year, apparently weren’t touched.

Police have not released the video.

Sunday's act wasn't the first example of vandalism to the statue memorializing Floyd, whose killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis last year galvanized a racial justice movement across the country.

The statue was unveiled on the Juneteenth holiday in a spot on Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, and it was vandalized five days later with black paint and marked with an alleged logo of a white supremacist group.

Members of the group that installed the statue cleaned it, and local residents and one of Floyd’s brothers gathered in July as it was prepared to move to Union Square, in the heart of Manhattan.

BOSTON (AP) — A memorial honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, is moving forward in Boston.

The civil rights couple met and studied in the New England city in the 1950s.

Organizers say fabrication of a towering bronze sculpture depicting arms embracing is expected to start in March.

The monument would be entitled “The Embrace” and would consist of four 22-foot-high intertwined bronze arms. Organizers hope to place it at the site of a 1965 civil rights rally that MLK led on the city's historic Boston Common.

Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of the group King Boston, says the effort also includes an economic justice center and annual racial equity festival in Boston.

Jeffries hopes to demonstrate how public works can serve as a call to action following the national reckoning on racism sparked by George Floyd's killing last year.

Organizers also want the memorial to be the largest in the country dedicated to racial equity.

Dolly Parton is saying thanks, but no thanks, to Tennessee lawmakers who want to build a statue in her honor at the capitol in Nashville.

In a statement posted to Twitter Thursday morning, Parton said she was “honored and humbled by their intention but I have asked the leaders of the state legislature to remove the bill from any and all consideration.”

“Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time,” her statement reads.

A state representative proposed the idea last month to recognize all Parton has contributed to the state. The statue would have been paid for with a mix of monetary gifts and donations.

Parton has used her fame and fortune for several large philanthropic causes. In 1995, she started the Imagination Library to promote children’s literacy, which has grown into an international organization. Every month, the organization sends out more than one million books to children under age 5.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the Dollywood Foundation has focused on Mountain Tough, which offers resources to those impacted by COVID-19, including counseling access and shopping assistance.

And notably, last year she donated a million dollars to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help develop the Moderna coronavirus vaccine.

Parton’s statement Thursday left the door open to the possibility of a statue in the future.

“I hope, though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean,” Parton’s statement reads.

“In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to do good work to make this great state proud.”

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —

Video above: New doc examines America’s troubled past with Confederate statues

Work began Saturday morning to take down a Confederate monument that helped spark a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly four years ago.

A crane was moving into place and workers were preparing to hoist the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee away. Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker gave a speech in front of reporters and observers as the crane neared the monument.

"Taking down this statue is one small step closer to the goal of helping Charlottesville, Virginia, and America, grapple with the sin of being willing to destroy Black people for economic gain," Walker said.

The removal of the statue follows years of contention, community anguish and litigation. A long, winding legal fight coupled with changes in a state law that protected war memorials had held up the removal for years.

Saturday's removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee and another of Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson will come nearly four years after violence erupted at the infamous "Unite the Right" rally. Heather Heyer, a peaceful counterprotester, died in the violence, which sparked a national debate over racial equity, further inflamed by former President Donald Trump's insistence that there was "blame on both sides."

The city announced its plans to hoist away the statues Friday.

Only the statues, not their stone pedestals, will be removed Saturday. They will be taken down and stored in a secure location until the City Council makes a final decision about what should be done with them. Under state law, the city was required to solicit parties interested in taking the statues during an offer period that ended Thursday. It received 10 responses to its solicitation.

A coalition of activists commended the city for moving quickly to take the statues down after the offer period ended. As long as the statues "remain standing in our downtown public spaces, they signal that our community tolerated white supremacy and the Lost Cause these generals fought for," the coalition called Take 'Em Down Cville said.

The most recent removal push focused on the Lee monument began in 2016, thanks in part to a petition started by a Black high school student, Zyahna Bryant. A lawsuit was quickly filed, putting the city's plans on hold, and white supremacists seized on the issue.

"This is well overdue," said Bryant, who's now a student at the University of Virginia. "No platform for white supremacy. No platform for racism. No platform for hate."