Updated at 6:35 p.m. to correct headline — The Missouri Civil War Museum may sue St. Louis if the city challenges the museum’s ownership of the Confederate Memorial in Forest Park, the organization said Friday.
In a letter posted on its website and addressed to Mayor Lyda Krewson, the museum says it was gifted the monument Tuesday by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which put the statue in the park with city permission in 1914.
The city is in the process of removing the 32-foot-tall granite and bronze statue after years of debate, a process it estimates will cost $130,000. The museum says it can remove the monument at no cost to taxpayers by June 23.
Krewson spokesman Koran Addo said that the city had "no response," and that the city "controls the monument."
He also told the station that the plan is: "to remove it, put [it] in city storage, and at a later date consider proposals from groups to take control and display the monument."
The museum said it will pursue “immediate legal action” to prove it owns the statue.
Correction: The original headline misstated the museum in question. It is the Missouri Civil War Museum, not the Missouri History Museum.