PRESS RELEASE – 11 SEPTEMBER 2026

My first thoughts following the judgment are with the people who have been convicted. Several of them are old friends and people I have worked with since I came to Hong Kong with the Pillar in 1997. I believe it is deeply wrong that people are being convicted for preserving the memory of a historical event and peacefully defending democracy and human rights. It saddens me that my sculpture is used in the case against them.

 

The decision concerning the historical material held by the Hong Kong Alliance makes this even more disturbing. For decades, the Alliance collected documentation and material concerning the Tiananmen Square massacre and maintained a small museum dedicated to preserving this history. The court has now decided that material from this collection is to be destroyed. This is not simply about physical objects and documents. It concerns the preservation of historical memory.

 

The Pillar of Shame was created precisely to resist such historical erasure.

The prosecution had also sought the confiscation and destruction of the Pillar of Shame. The court has, however, for the time being excluded the sculpture from destruction while the question of ownership is being clarified. This is important, but it does not mean that the sculpture is safe or that the case has been resolved. I will therefore continue to assert my ownership and demand the return of the sculpture.

I understand that one of the issues now being raised concerns the ownership of the Pillar of Shame.

 

There have been references to historical statements in which I described the sculpture as “a gift to the Chinese people.” I do not deny those words. But they described the symbolic and political purpose of the artwork – not a legal transfer of ownership of the physical sculpture.

 

Symbolically, the Pillar of Shame belongs to the people of Hong Kong, to those who continue to remember June 4, 1989, and above all to the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

 

Legally and physically, however, the sculpture belongs to me. I created it, and I have never transferred ownership of the physical sculpture to the Hong Kong Alliance, the University of Hong Kong or anyone else. The sculpture was made available to the Hong Kong Alliance for permanent exhibition in Hong Kong. It was a loan, not a transfer of ownership.

 

This is not merely my present interpretation. On 13 October 2021, the Hong Kong Alliance itself explicitly stated that the Pillar of Shame belonged to its original creator, Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt, and that I had lent the sculpture to the Alliance for permanent exhibition in Hong Kong. This statement from the Alliance is particularly important. If the Alliance had owned the sculpture, it would have been in a position to say so. Instead, it explicitly acknowledged my ownership.

 

I explain the circumstances of my ownership in yesterdays press conference (see video) and have collected central communication and statements of ownership here.

 

 

 

I am available to the press, lawyers and other relevant parties for further explanation, interviews and documentation.

 

Jens Galschiøt
Danish sculptor, creator and owner of the Pillar of Shame

Press contact:
Jens Galschiøt / Galleri Galschiøt
Ph / whatsapp +45 4044 7058 

email: aidoh@aidoh.dk