LOUISVILLE (WHAS11) – Two Louisville statues, one of John B. Castleman and one of George D. Prentice, were found vandalized on Wednesday.
The statues were found with orange paint on them.
The Castleman statue is located in the Highlands neighborhood. The Prentice statue is located outside the downtown Louisville Free Public Library.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said, “...people are going to have differing viewpoints, but vandalism is not the way to share those views.”
The vandalism was discovered on the same day the city is set to have a Public Art and Monuments Advisory Committee meeting. The committee was created after the Castleman statue was vandalized for the first time.
The meeting is set to begin Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Louisville Free Public Library. The committee's work is expected to take about six months to complete.
Full statement from Mayor Greg Fischer:
"In a diverse community like ours, people are going to have differing viewpoints, but vandalism is not the way to share those views. It is costly, divisive and ultimately ineffective since it basically is a one-way conversation. We have initiated a community dialogue about public art, including a meeting of our new Public Art Advisory Committee tonight at the Main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. I’d ask citizens to share your views in public, with each other, through opportunities like this, including an online option. Let’s talk with each other, not at each other."
According to the Filson Historical Society, Prentice is sometimes considered partly responsible for the violence in Louisville in 1855, which became known as the Bloody Monday riots.