Theodore Roosevelt Library in North Dakota to take statue

MEDORA, N.D. (AP) — The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota has agreed to take a controversial equestrian statue of the 26th president that has stood on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1940.

The bronze statue was commissioned by the New York State Roosevelt Memorial in 1929.

The library, which opens next year in Medora, North Dakota, will be getting it as a long-term loan.

The statue depicts the former president on horseback with a Native American man and an African man flanking the horse.

It’s been the subject of years of criticism that it symbolizes colonial subjugation and racial discrimination.

In June, the New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously to relocate the statue.

According to the New York Times, museum officials proposed the statue be removed last June.