The recently-unveiled sculpture of George Floyd in Manhattan’s Union Square has already been vandalized.
Blue paint was thrown on the bust of Floyd around 10 a.m. Sunday, according to NBC New York. Police said they have security footage showing a person mixing the paint behind the sculpture before defacing it and running away.
Cleanup efforts are already underway.
The sculpture was unveiled Thursday, along with a statue of Rep. John Lewis and Breonna Taylor.
The statue of Floyd was previously on display in Brooklyn, where it was also defaced. The piece was unveiled there on Juneteenth. Five days later on June 24, it was vandalized with black paint and marked with the logo of a white supremacist group.
“I heard the news about the vandalism. I was so proud that I got word that Flatbush held it down. They really supported us, looked out for the statue, looked out for the spirit of my brother,” Floyd’s brother Terrence said at time. ”You try to stop us, but you can’t stop us. And we still gonna continue, with love.”
Confront Art, the group behind the statue, said people spent hours cleaning off the paint with toothbrushes and by hand.