A mural dedicated to Aretha Franklin has been vandalised just a week after it went up, Essence reports.
The mural, which is located at the late singer’s home town of Detroit, debuted in the city’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History last week.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the mural, which took 12 days to complete, was vandalised by an alleged paint thief – who threw black paint over it.
The offender has yet to be caught.
The mural was created by London-based artist Richard Wilson as part of the annual Murals in the Market public art event.
Speaking to the news agency about the damage done on 29 September, Richard said, “I finished it yesterday evening … all happy….I came back this morning just to tidy up a bit, check if there’s anything I missed or anything,”.
“It’s like they had a paint party here, and it’s just splattered all over the place,” he said.
Thankfully he was able to restore the artwork to its original state by 30 September.
Aleanna Siacon of the Detroit Free Press, tweeted a video of Wilson cleaning up the mural with the caption, “Richard Wilson, a London-based artist in Detroit for #MuralsInTheMarket, is fixing up his mural featuring Aretha Franklin and other famous Detroit records after it was splattered by paint left in a cherry picker and inadvertently vandalized overnight.”
Richard Wilson, a London-based artist in Detroit for #MuralsInTheMarket, is fixing up his mural featuring Aretha Franklin and other famous Detroit records after it was splattered by paint left in a cherry picker and inadvertently vandalized overnight. @freep pic.twitter.com/qxGwKYBNE1
— Aleanna Siacon (@AleannaSiacon) September 29, 2018
Meanwhile, the music industry is gearing up to honour Aretha Franklin at The American Music Awards, which will take place on 9 October.
Gladys Knight, Ledisi, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin, CeCe Winans have all been lined up to pay tribute to the Queen of Soul, who passed away in August, age 76, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
