Vandalized Vietnam War Memorial In Venice Restored
VENICE (CBSLA.com) – An official re-dedication ceremony was held Monday morning for a Vietnam War mural in Venice that has been fully restored after being vandalized twice in the past year.
The POW MIA Mural , located at Pacific Avenue near Sunset Court, was first vandalized in on Memorial Day weekend in 2016. It was covered in graffiti from end to end.
#MemorialDay #Venice POW MIA mural restored after vandal damage. $40 K effort $5K more needed for digital imaging @KNX1070 @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/PoQY1BMI80
— Pete Demetriou (@knxpete) May 29, 2017
In January, 24-year-old Angel Castro was sentenced to four years in state prison after pleading no contest to charges of vandalism and robbery in connection with the incident.
The mural was vandalized a second time in March of this year. No arrests have been made in the most recent case.
Dozens of volunteers spent the last year restoring the mural with the help of a $10,000 donation from Southern California Gas Company. It now has a protective coating that will allow any new graffiti to be easily scrubbed away.
The mural was painted in the early 1990s by artist Patrick Stewart and bears the names of 2,237 soldiers counted as prisoners of war or missing in action in Vietnam.