Currently, a 14-member commission appointed by the sitting governor oversees the maintenance, repair, and display of objects in the Executive Mansion, the Old Governor’s Mansion, the Vest Lindsey House, and the New State Capitol. House Bill 513 leaves that commission in place, but adds an exception - any art on display in the rotunda, including statues, would have to receive legislative approval to be added or removed.
Representative David Hale, the sponsor of HB 513, stated during the bill's introduction that it was not proposed in response to the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue from the rotunda in 2020. However, Senator Phillip Wheeler made direct reference to the 5-ton marble monument of the Confederate president, saying the method of its removal should be of “grave concern to every citizen of the Commonwealth”. He also said he wished the legislation was able to go further, referencing the current debate over a mural on UK's campus.
"The 21st-century iconoclasts, unfortunately, know no shame or bounds," said Wheeler. "It would be great if we could expand that to protect other public works of art that are under threat by the left, radical left, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
Though the statue’s removal was criticized as “political”, its original installation was not neutral. Davis was added to the rotunda in 1936 during the Jim Crow era at the request of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Plaques on the Davis statue called him a “patriot” and “hero”. Upon its removal from the rotunda, the 12-foot-tall statue was brought to the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site near Fairview, Kentucky.
