The Steve Jobs Memorial Taken Down In Russia Last Month Is Now Headed For Auction

The Steve Jobs memorial statue that was removed from St. Petersburg is now up for auction.

The memorial, which was originally erected by the Russian Holdings Company firm, was removed the day after Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed publically that he was gay, leading many to accuse the firm of homophobia.

While the firm has since claimed the statue was already scheduled to be removed due to a malfunctioning display, they've also gone on record stating that they would only reinstall the memorial if it could be programmed to "send a message to the US rejecting the use of Apple devices."

The firm seems to have abandoned this idea, however, choosing instead to put the memorial up for auction on the company's website, where the starting price is five million rubles (around $95,000).

If you read the auction's fine print, however, you'll notice that its terms of purchase require the memorial to be exported outside of Russia upon purchase.

This stipulation could be to prevent a third party from purchasing and installing the statue in the same location, a strategy suggested by Russia's largest social network, VKontakte, which had previously attempted to purchase it but didn't hear back after making an offer.

VKontakte took offense at the statue's removal, calling Jobs the "greatest reformer of the 21st century," according to Vocative.

Due to the stipulations preventing VKontakte from purchasing and re-installing the statue in St. Petersburg, VKontakte is reportedly considering building its own statue instead.

You can read the full story of the statue's removal over at Vocativ.