David Bowie statue vandalised after less than 48 hours

A bronze statue of David Bowie has been attacked with paint just two days after it was unveiled.

Called Earthly Messenger, the statue was revealed in Aylesbury on Sunday and vandalised early this morning.

“Feed the homeless first” was sprayed onto the pavement in front of the sculpture of the singer, who died in January 2016. “RIP DB” was written on the wall behind it, and a section of the statue was also targeted.

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“It’s with a heavy heart and despair I hear that within 48 hours someone has defaced Andrew Sinclair's breathtaking David Bowie double-statue,” said Steve Hogarth, lead singer of the band Marillion, who unveiled the statue.

“Hopefully this is just a glitch and this fabulous work of art will give people a reason to come to Aylesbury for many years to come.”

Local resident Helen Light told The Guardian: “Taxpayers will now be paying for the cleanup, so it is the vandal who will ironically be taking money away from the homeless.”

The work was paid for by a £100,000 crowdfunding appeal set up by David Stopps, along with money raised through grants. “It is a public piece of art and we will keep looking after it on a daily basis,” Stopps told the BBC. “There is a webcam on it 24/7, so whoever did it, we have got them on webcam.”

Sinclair’s statue features Bowie looking back on a selection of his personas from down the years, starting with Ziggy Stardust. He gave his first performance as Ziggy Stardust at the Friars Aylesbury club in July 1972, The Independent reports.

Speakers mounted above the life-sized piece play a Bowie song every hour.