New David Bowie statue vandalised

Aylesbury’s David Bowie statue has been vandalised less than 48 hours after it was unveiled on March 25. The words “Feed the homeless first” have been spray-painted on the ground in front of the statue, while “RIP DB” has been painted on the wall behind the statue.

The work was funded through grants and a £10,000 (Dh52,049) crowdfunding campaign led by music promoter David Stopps. “It is a public piece of art and we will keep looking after it on a daily basis,” he told the BBC. “There is a webcam on it 24/7, so whoever did it, we have got them on webcam.”

Steve Hogarth, lead singer of British rock band Marillion, unveiled the statue on March 25. “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,” he said. “Such a shame. Hopefully it can be cleaned up ... [And] hopefully this fabulous work of art will give people a reason to come to Aylesbury for many years to come. It’s worth the trip.”

“Taxpayers will now be paying for the cleanup, so it is the vandal who will ironically be taking money away from the homeless,” local resident Helen Light told the BBC. The graffiti appeared overnight on March 26; the cleanup had begun by the following morning.

Bowie gave his first performance as Ziggy Stardust at the club Friars Aylesbury in July 1972. The sculpture features several of Bowie’s musical personas, with his Stardust incarnation at the centre.