The bronze statue of statesman Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp from 1867 has been temporarily removed. Van Hogendorp was a pensionary from Rotterdam and was involved in drawing up the New Constitution. That is why in the statue he has the Constitution of 1814 in his right hand. After the completion of the sculpture by the Belgian sculptor Jozef Geefs, after a long search, it turned out that there was only room behind the Schielandshuis (the former Museum Boymans), although at the time this was the outermost edge of the city. During the war, the statue was stored for safety reasons. After the war, Van Hogendorp was put back on his pedestal, but in 1961 the statue had to be moved because of the construction of the garden of the Historical Museum. The four meter high bronze statue was placed on the back of the platform of the Beurstrappen at the entrance of the World Trade Center (WTC). In the 1980s the statue was moved again, this time to the front of the platform, where it overlooks the Coolsingel. After forty years, Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp was removed from his place on April 28, 2020. The statue will be thoroughly restored and temporarily placed in storage, because the main entrance of WTC Rotterdam will undergo a major transformation due to the arrival of two escalators in the platform. For the restored statue of Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp a new location is sought, preferably around the WTC.
