Police Investigate Graffiti Found on Seoul’s Main Palace

The Gyeongbokgung Palace, a nationwide treasure within the coronary heart of South Korea’s capital that pulls hundreds of thousands of holiday makers every year, was vandalized with graffiti twice over the weekend.

Components of the 14th century palace have been spray painted in purple and blue on Saturday and Sunday nights, in accordance with the police. The police mentioned at the least two folks acted on Saturday, and at the least one individual did on Sunday. They’ve but to determine the suspects.

Whereas graffiti is extra frequent in alleyways and tunnels in South Korea, heritage websites are a uncommon goal in South Korea, and have particular protections below the legislation, with violators going through stiff jail sentences and fines.

The authorities have been first alerted to vandalism on the palace at about 2 a.m. on Saturday. The phrases “free film” in Korean and a number of other web site addresses have been written with blue and purple spray paint.

Two areas have been focused: the doorway to Yeongchu Gate, the palace’s western gate, and the facet gate of the Nationwide Palace Museum. The overall harm unfold throughout 44 meters.

Authorities employees started cleansing off the graffiti the following day. Stories of a second spray-painting got here in to police at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, this time in purple and spanning three meters of the western gate. The phrases included the title of an artist and album in English. The police declined to say what these have been.

Gyeongbokgung Palace, positioned within the coronary heart of downtown and Seoul’s previous capital district, was inbuilt 1395 as the primary palace of the Joseon Dynasty, the final dynastic period of Korea earlier than the Korean empire and the primary Japanese annexation. A big a part of the palace is being restored.

The palace is among the 5 grand palaces constructed through the Joseon Dynasty and boasts clay statues of folklore creatures, the king’s throne corridor, and expansive roofs produced from fired clay tiles. It was utilized by Gucci this yr to host a vogue present.

Police mentioned they imagine the suspects from every night time are completely different and that the second incident might need been a copycat.

At the least 20 authorities employees are eradicating the graffiti, which officers say will take a few week. The broken areas are coated with a tarp and the encircling areas are closed off by fences.

The palace is protected below the Cultural Heritage Protection Act and anybody charged with vandalizing it might withstand 5 years in jail and a positive of as much as $39,000.