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Police arrest man accused of defacing week-old sculpture in downtown

4 years 3 months 2 weeks ago Thursday, December 12 2019 Dec 12, 2019 December 12, 2019 5:10 PM December 12, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ TV

BATON ROUGE – Not a week since city leaders unveiled a shiny art installation along the Mississippi River in downtown, public works crews were assigned to remove graffiti painted on the object overnight.

By sunup Wednesday, the graffiti was evident: Someone used spray paint to “tag” the concrete base and glass railing area of the sculpture that overlooks the river.

The crews cleaned the graffiti Thursday (12/12).

Just hours after the spray paint was removed, Baton Rouge Police booked Caleb Davis, 23, for the crime. Arrest records say Davis admitted to vandalizing the piece when confronted by police, and he was booked on one count of simple criminal damage to property. 

It was just last week, on Friday, when the sculpture was unveiled at sunset. Designed by an artist in California on behalf of the Baton Rouge Rotary club, the 20-foot by 14-foot sculpture is made of an inner sphere surrounded by a ring of partial spheres and plays music based on the flow of the river.

In dedicating it last week, city officials said the artwork – the first commissioned piece for the city in 30 years – was to honor people’s “‘can do’ spirit who believe in bettering our community and are certainly proud of such a unique gift to the city.”

Downtown Development officials said after seeing the graffiti, they are hastily working to install security cameras in the area.

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