An unknown vandal has defaced a part of Prague’s Charles Bridge. Blue inscriptions in English are on the right side of the railing and the base of the statue facing Prague Castle from about the middle of the bridge. Police officers will deal with the case, said police spokesman Richard Hrdina. According to a spokeswoman for the Technical Administration of Communications (TSK), Barbora Lišková, an expert restorer, will remove the inscriptions over the weekend.
Inscriptions such as “hate you,” “love,” or “sorry” have been sprayed with indelible blue paint. The lamp on the bridge has also been sprayed. “Colleagues from the Technical Administration of Communications (TSK) are already dealing with the current graffiti and it will probably be removed in cooperation with the Gallery of the capital city of Prague, because one of the tags has appeared on one of the sculptures,” Vít Hofman, a spokesman for the municipality underlined it. “The graffiti is already being removed. Lišková said this afternoon that the administration has already contacted a restorer contracted for similar cases who will remove the inscriptions over the weekend.
It is not an isolated case in recent months. The last damage by the so-called tag was on the staircase at the turn of May and June this year, according to Lišková. The current signs will be removed within a few hours, or at most a few days depending on the difficulty, the spokeswoman said. Because one of the inscriptions also appeared on the base of the statue, the work will be carried out by an experienced restorer. “The whole matter is being handled by the Prague City Police and a report will be filed with the Police of the Czech Republic,” Lišková added. “The Prague City Police will be notified. According to the police spokesperson, the perpetrator faces up to three years in prison.