WASHINGTON (AFP).- Where is it? Did it even exist?

A search has come up empty for a time capsule that was believed to have been buried in the pedestal of the statue of a Confederate general taken down this week.

The bronze statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, was removed on Wednesday in Richmond, the Virginia city that was the capital of the South during the bloody 1861-65 conflict.

Unveiled in 1890, the towering figure of Lee mounted on a horse is among hundreds of Confederate monuments in the United States that are widely considered symbols of racism.

Once the sculpture was carted away in pieces, work crews began a search of the 40-foot-tall (12-meter) granite pedestal for a time capsule believed to be hidden in a cornerstone of the base.

The search was called off late Thursday after a number of heavy stones were lifted and nothing turned up.

"After a long hard day, it's clear the time capsule won't be found -- and Virginia is done with lost causes," Grant Neely, the chief communications officer for the governor's office, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"The search for this moldy Confederate box is over. We're moving on."

According to an 1887 newspaper article, the time capsule contained relics from the Civil War, Confederate currency, a Bible, a picture of assassinated president Abraham Lincoln in his coffin and other items.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam ordered a new time capsule to be placed in the pedestal that is a "representation of the Virginia today, one rooted in our values of inclusion, equity, and diversity."

Among the items placed in the new capsule was a photograph of a Black ballerina, an expired vial of Covid vaccine, a "Black Lives Matter" sticker and a book about immigrants who have settled in Virginia.

© Agence France-Presse