No, ‘beast’ statue didn’t replace Robert E. Lee monument | Fact check

An Aug. 27 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes photos of a statue of a silver beast-like figure standing upright. 
“They replaced the Robert E. Lee statue in New Orleans with this,” reads the caption on the post. “This is diabolical.” 
It was shared 50 times in two days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on X, formerly Twitter.  
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The beast statue did not replace the Lee statue. It is on private property adjacent to the area where the Lee statue once stood, a New Orleans city spokesperson said. The beast statue has been in the area since well before the Lee statue was removed in 2017.  
A 16-foot-tall bronze statue commemorating the Confederate general was taken down from its place in New Orleans’ since-renamed Lee Circle in 2017, as WWL-TV in New Orleans reported. It’s one of many Confederate monuments that have been taken down around the country. 
But the statue shown in the social media posts “did not replace the Robert E. Lee statue,” said city spokesperson Leatrice Dupré.
In fact, there have “not been any replacements” for the Lee statue, Dupré said.
A statue titled “Sentinel” was placed in Egalite Circle, formerly Lee Circle, in January 2022, but it was only a temporary installment as part of an art exhibition and was taken down later that year.  
The sculpture shown in the social media posts is on “private property adjacent to the circle,” Dupré said. A website where users visit and log locations using GPS coordinates shows the statue has been there since at least 2007, a decade before the Lee statue was removed.
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USA TODAY reached out to the property manager and users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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