The "Pillar of Shame" sculpture memorializing victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has been removed from the University of Hong Kong. HKU cited legal risks for taking down the monument created by Danish artist Jens Galschiot. The decision over the two ton "Pillar of Shame" artwork that’s been on campus for 24 years was announced in a statement posted on the university’s website Thursday, months after a deadline for its removal passed. “Latest legal advice given to the university cautioned that the continued display of the statue would pose legal risks to the university based on the Crimes Ordinance enacted under the Hong Kong colonial government,” the university said, also citing potential safety issues due to the artwork’s “fragile” state. A large white curtain was placed in front of the 8-meter (26-foot) tall artwork Wednesday night, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper, and workers in safety helmets and a crane were on site. The university said it had “requested” the statue be put in storage. Removal of the sculpture comes as the government enforces strict new limits on free speech in the former British colony. Dozens of prominent activists have been charged under a Beijing-imposed national security law and civil society groups have come under intense government scrutiny, including organizers of past efforts to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown. Campus chiefs initially ordered Danish artist Jens Galschiot’s work to be removed by Oct. 13. That deadline passed amid confusion over who bore responsibility for the exhibit comprised of fused human bodies and featuring the inscription: “The old cannot kill the young forever.” That dispute now appeared to have been resolved. “No party has ever obtained any approval from the university to display the statue on campus, and the university has the right to take appropriate actions to handle it at any time,” HKU said Thursday. In recent years, Hong Kong authorities have cited Covid-19 rules to ban that annual gathering, sentencing its organizers and participants to jail terms, and begun to censor discussion of the event that has been scrubbed from history books and the internet on the mainland. Authorities in September seized assets from a museum in Hong Kong memorializing the event, prompting organizers to shut it down shortly afterward, and charged key organizers of the annual vigil with inciting subversion under the security law. Hong Kong public libraries have removed 29 of the 149 titles they carry about Tiananmen over the past 12 years, totaling 263 individual books, Hong Kong Free Press reported last month. Of those that remain, only 26 are on display with the rest available on request, the news site reported. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Subscribe to our newest channel Quicktake Explained: https://bit.ly/3iERrup Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake