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By Zoe Strozewski
Staff Writer
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A man scaled BBC's Broadcasting House in central London and used a hammer to attack and deface a statue created by sculptor Eric Gill.
Though a prominent British artist, Gill's name has become surrounded in controversy after diaries that were published decades after his 1940 death revealed that he had sexually abused his daughters and the family dog.
Photos of the area during the man's attack showed chunks of stone missing from the statue, shards and debris littering the ground surrounding the artwork and several message inscriptions. One read "Time to go was 1989," while another said, "Noose All Peados."
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The man, who has not yet been identified by name but was seen in photos wearing a Reservoir Dogs shirt, used a ladder to scale the building and reach the sculpture. His motive in attacking the statue was not immediately clear, but after Gill's diaries were published in the late 1980s, they sparked criticism for the sculpture and demands for its removal by activist groups.
British police closed off the area outside the BBC building during the attack, and ambulance workers reported to the scene.
The 10-foot-tall statue, which was installed in the 1930s, is above a set of doors at the front of the BBC headquarters. It depicts two characters from the Shakespeare play The Tempest.
A fully clothed Prospero stands behind the nude Ariel, a spirit of the air, who is seemingly being sent out into the world as an "appropriate symbol for the new mystery of broadcasting," according to the BBC website. The company wrote that concerns were raised after the statue's installation about the size of the sprite's genitalia.
"A question was tabled in the House of Commons, but the popular story, that Gill was ordered to modify the statue, is not substantiated," the website said.
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The Metropolitan Police said officers attempted to "engage with the man," and that another man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
The incident came a week after a jury cleared four protesters of criminal damage after they pulled down a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the city of Bristol in June of 2020.
The four protesters, who threw the statue into the harbor after toppling it, were acquitted on January 5 following an 11-day trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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