The decision to finally move the three-metre statue inside the Stadium built for the 1928 Olympic Games came nearly two years after an investigation concluded that, although the athlete is not doing a Hitler salute, it still needed to be moved as the gesture is still linked to fascism.

Historical research showed that the greeting, which looks like the Nazi salute, can be traced back to a fascist tradition, Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool reported.

The Stadium always disputed that the statue, made by Dutch sculptor Gerarda Rueb, was doing a Nazi salute.

They claimed that, as it was designed in 1928, well before the Nazis came to power in Germany, it could not be linked to fascism.

It was argued that the greeting was always a Roman salute introduced as the Olympic salute at the 1924 Games in Paris by Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games.

But new research, that took more than a year to compete, found no evidence that the Romans ever greeted each other in this way.

The researchers claimed that the greeting originated in Italy at the start of the 20th century, based on the 1784 painting The Oath of the Horatii by French artist Jacques-Louis David.

The painter invented a group of Roman soldiers who swore allegiance with their right arm outstretched.

When Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922, the gesture was adopted by fascists.

Later, it was taken over by the Nazis and after World War Two, the Olympic salute was banned.

"The statue of Gra Rueb was never created with bad intentions, but now that we understand the historical context better, we want to take action," a spokesperson for the Olympic Stadium told Het Parool.

"This kind of gesture does not fit with the ideals we stand for, so we have chosen to remove the statue from our square."

The statue has now been moved inside the Stadium, with a sign providing context.

In June 2020, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco removed a bust of former International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage from its foyer because of concerns over his "racist legacy".

Brundage, who died in 1975, had opposed the boycott of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin during his time as President of the American Olympic Committee, as it was then called.

The bust was unveiled by the Asian Art Commission in 1972 and has sat in the foyer since in honour of the institution's founding patron.