A 225-year-old Baltimore monument, which is distinguished as the oldest monument built in dedication to Christopher Columbus in the U.S., was discovered to have been vandalized on Monday, August 21. This comes amid many Confederate statues being taken down across the nation.

Authorities are unaware of exactly when the act was carried out, but the base of the landmark had been crushed to the point where the the words "Sacred to the memory of Chris. Columbus, Octob. XII, MDCCVIIIC," were illegible. It would also be discovered that those who committed the act had documented it online. Authorities were able to recover a recording of one man narrating their reason for destroying the statue, while the other wails away at its stone with a sledgehammer.

"Part of our evolution as humans requires tearing down monuments to destructive forces and tearing down systems that maintain them. Part of our evolution is to develop new and ancient systems of democratic economics that centers in the needs of poor indigenous African-American and brown people," the voice behind the recording states.

The monument is reported to have survived in its prior state since 1792.