Police are searching for a suspect who defaced the “OY/YO” art statue at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History with an “offensive message” on Aug. 13, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson told JNS.
At approximately 8:11 p.m., “an unidentified white male vandalized” the sculpture on the grounds of the Smithsonian-affiliated institution “by writing an offensive message on it,” police said.
Surveillance footage captured the suspect approaching the statue and then boarding a train at a nearby station about five minutes later.
No arrests have been made. Detectives are investigating the incident, including its possible classification as a hate crime, the department told JNS.
The vandalism follows an incident nearly a year ago in which a vandal spray-painted the museum’s facade, plaza and an Israeli flag.
Andrew Goretsky, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior regional director, told ABC 6 that the latest incident was “incredibly frustrating” but “not surprising.”
