The removal of the statue itself isn’t all that surprising.
To make room for the new statues, there’s almost certainly a need to remove some of the current ones.
I remember when we saw it on our recent trip thinking that it would likely be replaced around the time that Splash Mountain saw its redesign.
Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration is just about one month away and part of the celebration is the Disney Fab 50 Character Collection, a set of 50 golden statues of different Disney characters that will be placed all over all four of Disney World’s theme parks.