Police are investigating after Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” statue was vandalized with a splash of blue Thursday morning, officials said.
Eric Phillips, the mayor’s press secretary, posted a picture of the sculpture doused in blue on Twitter around 8:15 a.m., noting that the vandalism was “in apparent protest of the Paris [climate agreement] pullout.”
“No place for vandalism in public debate,” Phillips added.
The nearby “Fearless Girl” statue was also draped with a sash that read “draw the blue line,” another reference in support of the Paris agreement.
Phillips wrote that the bull was splashed with paint, but according to a post on a “Draw the Blue Line” Facebook page, the blue substance was a mixture of corn oil and chalk.
Images of both the “Charging Bull” and the “Fearless Girl” statues with their respective alterations were posted on that Facebook page.
The vandalism was treated like an art piece, with the Facebook post of the bull bearing the title “’Bulls–t’ (2017) – Performance vandalism by Courtney Frances Fallon with corn oil and industrial chalk.”
The “Fearless Girl” image was captioned “‘Suffragette Sash’ (2017) by Courtney Frances Fallon – nylon and cotton ribbon, vinyl and safety pins.”
A Twitter account with the handle @DrawTheBlueLine posted the same images at around 6 a.m. on Thursday.
Climate change makes me feel fearful – nevertheless, we must persist. #DrawTheBlueLine #SuffragetteSash #FearlessGirl #ClimateAction #fight pic.twitter.com/YQNKsByjlw
— Draw The Blue Line (@DrawTheBlueLine) September 14, 2017
Along with the image of the bull, the tweet read, “Be bull-headed in the face of climate change denial, and demand action now.”
The blue splash on the bull and the sash were both removed Thursday morning. No arrests have been made, police said, and the investigation is ongoing.
The “Charging Bull,” installed in 1989 by artist Artuto Di Modica, was vandalized with blue paint in 2008.
