Christopher Columbus statue beheaded in Boston

A Christopher Columbus statue in Boston’s North End was beheaded overnight — the latest monument to be toppled or vandalized amid protests over the death of George Floyd.

The headless statue on Atlantic Avenue was surrounded by police tape Wednesday morning, with the explorer’s head lying on the ground in front of it, the target of unknown vandals, according to news reports.

City officials said it’s not the first time the monument has been defaced.

“This particular statue has been subject of repeated vandalism here in Boston,” Mayor Marty Walsh told WCVB-TV. “Given the conversations that we are certainly having right now in our city of Boston and throughout the country, we are going to take time to assess the historic meaning of the statue.”

The Columbus statue was beheaded once before, in 2006, and doused in red paint in 2015, with the words “Black Lives Matter” scrawled on it, CBS News said.

Columbus has long been a controversial historical figure, seen by some as the European “discoverer” of the Americas, but by others as the man who made the slave trade possible and who was guilty of genocide for his brutal treatment of Native Americans on the continents.

It is just one of many statues to be targeted since protests over George Floyd’s death on May 25 erupted around the globe.

Another statue of the Italian explorer in Byrd Park in Richmond, Virginia, was toppled and thrown into a lake on Tuesday, with protesters leaving a note: “Racism: You will NOT be missed.”

Over the weekend, British protesters in Bristol took down a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and dumped it into Floating Harbour.

And a monument to colonialist Belgian King Leopold II in Antwerp was removed Tuesday after protesters set it on fire.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also announced plans this week to remove a massive statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond.