Butkevicius: Vilnius bridge Soviet statues decision should come from specialists

  • 2015-02-12
  • from wire reports, VILNIUS

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius says that a decision on whether to lift legal protections of the Soviet-era Socialist realist statues on The Green Bridge in Vilnius should only be made by specialists in the subject. He added, however, that a discussion on the issue is needed.

"I believe the issue should be decided by [...] historians, art people. The decision should be made after their proposals have been discussed, and they should be the ones to make that decision," Butkevicius told the radio station Ziniu Radijas on Thursday.

As previously reported, the Immovable Cultural Heritage Assessment Council (NTPVT) decided on 10 Feb. not to revoke legal protection of The Green Bridge and its four statues, which were erected in 1952. The following day Chairman of the NTPVT Romas Pakalnis stepped down in protest against the vote.

Minister of Culture Sarunas Birutis signed a decree last year obligating the removal of all objects with Soviet or Nazi symbols from the list of sites of cultural heritage protected by the state.

The Green Bridge, which crosses the Neris river, is the oldest known bridge in Lithuania's capital and connects the centre of the city with the main business district. The statues currently under discussion display four pairs of people in the Socialist realist style: two soldiers, two workers, two farmers and two students.