Focus on this artwork and explore the Recent controversies.
The statue of Egede in Nuuk was doused in red paint on June 21, 2020, the national day of Greenland, or Kalaallit Nunaat as it is known in Greenlandic. Along with the red paint, the word "decolonize" was written along the base. Inuit symbols representing traditional Tunniit tattoos were marked on the pedestal and the pastoral staff that Egede holds was turned into a whip.: 3  This was also done to the Hans Egede statue in Copenhagen.This is not the first time the statue has been vandalized. Incidents had been reported in the 1970s, 2012, and 2015. The first reported act of dousing the statue in red paint in 1973 was followed by a plaque placed at the foot of the statue reading "Was it not he who killed our souls? Should we continue to honour him?": 393  The group responsible released an anonymous statement saying, "It is about time that we stop celebrating colonisers and that we start taking back what is rightfully ours... No coloniser deserves to be on top of a mountain like that." The Greenlandic artist Aqqalu Berthelsen, who delivered the message for the group, has called for all statues of Egede to be removed due to their representation of "oppression and colonisation." Police investigation into the matter led to the questioning of suspects, but within Greenland there is no clear consensus on what should happen with the statue. The statue has also been target of a number of satirical cartoons by Robert Holmene and Kunuk Platou, among others.: 6 
A poll conducted in July 2020 showed 923 people in favor of the Hans Egede statue to remain up while 600 voted for its removal (23,000 people were eligible to vote). The voting was conducted in the Sermersooq municipality alone, a municipality that includes Nuuk. Not counted were the people who want the statue removed but placed in a museum. Even with this vote, what is to be done with the statue is yet to be determined by local council, which maintains that the statue can only be removed with the support of at least 75% of Greenlandic people.
Copenhagen Kalaallit Nunaat Inuit Nuuk Hans Egede Greenland