In recent years, from South Africa to the United States, from Belgium to England, and spreading throughout Europe, various movements arose to remove statues and monuments, perceived as symbols of a past to be left behind. In order to understand these protests, it is necessary to broaden the view, finding analogies and differences with other iconoclastic phases that have occurred in history. While the act of demolishing is similar, intentions may be very different: context and perspective define whether it is vandalism, a demonstration of power or a deeply democratic process of liberation. This dossier is the result of these reflections, anchored in the present debate, trying to identify which elements and peculiar declinations can also be found in the territory of the Emilia-Romagna region.