The Lithuanian magazine Žmonės has covered the move of a Leonard Cohen statue from a restaurant courtyard to a more prominent location in the Vilnius Old Town.

“The sculpture dedicated to world-famous performer with Lithuanian roots Leonard Cohen has been moved to a new location, the square [triangle] at the intersection of Ligoninės and Pylimo streets.

“Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas’s statue to the world-famous Canadian performer with Jewish roots was unveiled in the courtyard of the Gabi restaurant, a temporary location, in August of 2019.

“The city municipality says the new location of the sculpture is closely connected with the Jewish historical legacy: near the Choral Synagogue, not far from the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, the square [triangle] was included in the Vilnius ghetto.”

Note: the site is actually a parking lot surrounded by garbage dumpsters. The triangular city block bounded by Pylimo, Ligoninės and Rudininkų streets was historically the Jewish Hospital included in the Vilnius ghetto. It was destroyed before the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto. Currently it houses apartments, a Belgian restaurant, a hotel and a bar. During the period of the Vilnius ghetto the headquarters of the FPO, the Jewish partisans organization, was housed in this block. Jewish partisan Rokha Margolis’s father was a doctor at this hospital before and after the establishment of the ghetto and she lived there in an apartment, and sometimes stayed in the X-Ray room there which her father administered. Leonard Cohen has no direct connection to the location at all.

Full story in Lithuanian plus photographs here.