It's because they had to keep them whole in order to protect the feelings of "muh history 
" snowflakes. They could've just hired a group of teenagers with sledgehammers for $100.
Hell turn it into a community event. Every citizen gets a swing for $5.
I strongly disapprove of destroying these things and negating their value for researchers and historians for centuries to come. Move them into a historical society or a museum rather than smashing them so we don't have access to them anymore.
This right here is the solution. I would just add that in said museums and/or historical societies the stories of how these statues came to be where they were - i.e., when and how they appeared in the first place - should be included in their descriptions.
