US statue cover-up ends as drapes come off

Justice spokesman Kevin Madden said the decision to remove the drapes was made by Paul Corts, Assistant Attorney General for Administration, and that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales ‘‘agreed with the recommendation’’. He declined to elaborate on the decision.

The 12-foot cast aluminum semi-nude sculptures had been hidden from view since early 2002, when the drapes were installed at a cost of $8,000, under previous Attorney General, John D. Ashcroft. Justice officials long insisted that the curtains were put up to improve the room’s use as a television backdrop and that Ashcroft had nothing to do with it.

But because internal e-mails referred to ‘‘hiding the statues’’—and because the room was rarely used for media events in recent years—the episode was quickly seized upon as a symbol of Ashcroft’s allegedly puritanical and censorious bearing.

In an appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman in April 2002, Ashcroft joked about the decision. ‘‘I didn’t really know much about this,’’ he said. ‘‘Someone ordered some draperies for the statues…It turns out it really wasn’t a covering for the statues as it really was a construction curtain. They’re being remodelled.’’

One statue, the ‘‘Spirit of Justice’’, depicts a woman wearing a toga-type dress with one breast revealed and arms raised. The male statue, the ‘‘Majesty of Law’’, is bare-chested with a garment draped around the waist.

Before the curtains were installed, photographers shot pictures that kept the statues in frame with the attorney general. ‘‘Spirit of Justice’’ probably had her most famous moment in 1986, when she was seen behind then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III who was holding a report on pornography.

—The Washington Post