For a Brooklyn neighborhood scarred by a recent string of anti-Semitic incidents, this latest act of vandalism is not cool. Last week, several cars in Midwood were burned and painted with swastikas and now the subway sign at the Avenue J station was defaced so it reads: “Avenue Jew.”
A life-size bronze sculpture of Ronald Reagan was recently molested in California’s Newport Beach park by mysterious “vandals” who lassoed and hitched Reagan to a pick up truck, but were thwarted mid-tow, as the rope slipped off. Confounded authorities speculate it was the skyrocketing prices of metal that motivated the crew to steal and pawn the dead prez. Read more »
A classic cast of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker was recently sprayed pink in Buenos Aires, the Argentinian government caused more substantial damage to the work by blasting it with water. The amateur clean up caused “irreversible damage” to the original blue algae patination, a part of the statue considered valuable by conservationists. Read more »
Since Shepard Fairey and his mural first took a hit in Copenhagen last month, “the mural continues to get vandalized regularly.” Fairey wasn’t planning on fixing his mural (again) and called the initial attacks “senselessly barbaric.” Regardless, they keep on coming. Read more »
A 57-year-old man “desecrated” Nicolas Poussin’s 16th century work The Adoration of the Golden Calf at the National Museum in London today. He spray-painted on some brown and “proudly” stood by his work, before being arrested. Then, he gave “some kind of explanation in French.” Read more »
The quirky and environmentally-conscious surfing Virgin of Guadalupe mosaic mural in Encinitas, California was removed — according to the city, it’s graffiti. Artist Mark Patterson agreed to pay a $500 fine plus the $2,600 in removal costs. Read more »
Here’s a vandalism video that is more of a feature length film. It documents the work of ЗАЧЕМ (translated as “Why?”), Moscow’s oldest and most notorious graffiti crew, who apparently are not averse to daylight bombing at all.
Here is Soviet Tank No. 23, a monument vandalized by artist David Černý in 1991 when it was painted pink and topped with a giant, phallic finger. Yesterday, we compared it to “Bulgarian Banksy’s” recently cartooned statues of Red Army soldiers. The tank was just sailed down the Vltala River in Prague to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia. Read more »
Over the weekend, the citizens of Sofia, Bulgaria awoke to find a public monument to Red Army defaced by an unknown interventionist. The statues of Soviet soldiers who “liberated” Bulgaria in 1944 were painted as Superman, Ronald McDonald, Santa Claus and other pop culture icons of capitalist Americana. Below it, a graffiti caption read: “In step with the times!” Read more »
As the sports fans among you are probably well aware, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat for the NBA’s top honors last night, a feat the Knicks couldn’t pull of this year or in 1994 for that matter. Anyhow, someone left New York’s team a well deserved memento at their hometown station.
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