The Washington Monument was defaced on Tuesday, and a person has been arrested for vandalism, according to the US Park Police. Videos and photos circulating on Twitter show the monument painted with red letters: “Have you been fucked by this … Gov says tough shit.” In an alert posted to Twitter on Tuesday night, the Park Police noted that they had a man in custody. The area was closed last night but has since been reopened, and visitors can still visit the 555-foot tall attraction.
https://twitter.com/katieleebarlow/status/1572375385823940611
The cleanup effort is already underway. Mike Litterst, a spokesperson for the National Parks Service, told Washingtonian that a team of NPS’ in-house conservators came out at 5 AM on Wednesday morning to begin the removal process. This isn’t the first time the team of stone and marble preservation pros have worked with paint: They employed the same strategies when the Lincoln Monument was splashed with light green coloring in 2013. The team will conduct a series of paint remover treatments over the next few days until the job is done.