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Market Policeman Savaged by Vandals |
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By Edward Dutton
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
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 Oulu’s art community are still none the wiser about the identity of the artist who sprayed Oulu’s Market Policeman statue with green paint during Vappu. Though, as the graffiti artist sprayed the name ‘Iiro’ on the back that might narrow it down a bit.
According to Oulu art museum, which owns the statue, the clean-up still isn’t complete though quite a lot of the obvious graffiti on the statue’s back has been washed off. There are, however, still green marks scarring the policeman.
‘We have to careful,’ one of the staff told Kaleva, ‘because different parts of the surface are from different materials.’
The Market Policeman has been the victim of graffiti many times in the past, including painting it to have lip-stick. Last year alone it was cleaned three times, though the damage wasn’t as great as in the last week. According to the police, vandalism is a crime but it’s very difficult to catch culprits.
According to historian Roger Cormack, statues almost always attract graffiti and vandalism because they are obvious icons of a group, usually one in power. Throughout history people have challenged powerful groups by destroying their icons.
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