Leopold’s regime lasted from 1885 to 1908 before, under huge international pressure, the government took the region out of royal hands and renamed it the Belgian Congo, which gained independence in 1960.

Mr. Locke was aware of the risk of “triggering” members of the Congolese community in Belgium by being too explicit in his description of Leopold’s horrific crimes.

“People don’t have a choice if they can walk past him or not, you know. And that’s why you have to approach everything with a bit of sensitivity and craft,” he said.

Having the images gilded and looking beautiful would allow people to engage as deeply as they wanted with the work, he said.

“I love the fact that something can be extremely beautiful and extremely problematic at the same time,” he added.

“Atrocities Denial”

Asked if his approach is an alternative to tearing down statues of problematic figures, he said each statue must be approached on a case-by-case basis.

He said: “This statue of Leopold is problematic because it denies a grave wrong, it denies atrocities.

“It’s not physically jumping up and down on people’s bones, it’s metaphorically jumping up and down on people’s bones.”

Mr. Locke temporarily altered British imperial statues, such as one of Queen Victoria in Birmingham. Perhaps his best-known work in Britain is The Jurors at Runnymede, which marks 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta.

“This artwork is not the final product of an extensive participatory project in the colonial footsteps, but the beginning of the dialogue we need to continue on how we manage colonial references in our public space,” said Ostend Councilor Silke Beirens.

Pieter Boons is the curator of the project. He said the people of Belgium were just beginning to face the reality of its colonial past and the impact it continues to have on black people in the country.

“Each step we take in this process is for us a learning process,” he said, “maybe 50 years from now, the sculpture may disappear, and that’s my personal opinion, but I think these processes require long time. .”