New York (Trends Wide) – A bronze bust of George Floyd, part of Confront Art’s “SEEINJUSTICE” exhibition, was vandalized Sunday morning, according to the New York City Police Department.
The bust, one of three statues in the Confront Art installation, which debuted Thursday but opened to the public Friday night, was vandalized with a gray water-based paint around 10 a.m. Sunday, he said. New York Police Detective Frances Sammon to Trends Wide.
“There are video footage that the police were able to observe,” Sammon said. “They show a man crouching under one of the statues. Then he mixes something up and, as he skates away, throws a container of paint at the statue.”
Confront Art co-founder Andrew Cohen said that when he arrived, a team of volunteers was already on site cleaning the statue.
“They went to the hardware store and bought supplies out of their own pockets,” he said. “This is inspiring teamwork and community support.”
Harmony Seaburg, one of the volunteers who helped clean the statue, noted how difficult it was to see in its disfigured state.
“It was really hard to see this larger than life man like this,” Seaburg told Trends Wide. “We are trying to remove all the paint from his face, but it is very emotional.”
Seaburg said the five volunteers do not know each other.
“The man is a painter and he knew what to buy,” Seaburg said. “We are about five and we are not related to the project. From what I have gathered, the people who work here are also doing this.”
Chris Carnabuci, the artist who made the statues, also praised the community response, comparing it to the community response he saw when a bust of George Floyd was vandalized in June in Brooklyn.
“At Flatbush, it was four days after the opening,” Carnabuci told Trends Wide. “In this case, the official opening with the press was on Thursday, so it’s only been a few days.”
“I’m not surprised, but I’m still angry,” he said. “It’s very counterproductive, and it’s not the kind of civil discourse (the keyword is civil) that I wanted.”
