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Chinese officials are shelling out a staggering $24 million to move a 190-foot-tall bronze statue of ancient war god Guan Yu following complaints from residents that it was an eyesore.
The statue, which cost $26 million to build, is being dismantled by workers in the city of Jingzhou, the South China Morning Post reports.
So far, only the statue’s head has been removed.
The statue of Guan Yu — a general who lived during the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) and was later revered as a war god — was built in 2016 above a museum, but its existence has been plagued by complaints from locals and some government officials.
They argue the 1,200-ton statue is ugly and a vanity project that ruins the appearance of the ancient city.
The Jingzhou Ministry of Housing ruled in December last year that the statue had to go.
It is being moved to a nearby tourist precinct.
The statue is reported to be the largest of Guan Yu in the world.
“We had an impulse and tendency to make Guinness World Record back then. So it became bigger during the designing process,” Zhang Hong, deputy head of the Jingzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, told the outlet.
He said the whole point of making the statue so large was to attract visitors.
The attraction has only reportedly raked in about $2 million since it was erected.
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