Protesters splattered red liquid onto the base of the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, and later published a statement on the internet calling for its removal as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.”

“Now the statue is bleeding,” said the statement Thursday from the protesters, who identified themselves as members of the Monument Removal Brigade. “We did not make it bleed. It is bloody at its very foundation.”

The group said the museum should “rethink its cultural halls regarding the colonial mentality behind them.”