NYC Christopher Columbus statue at entrance to Central Park is hit by vandals

A New York City Christopher Columbus statue was vandalized with the words 'murderer' splashed in red paint.

Police are on the hunt for two people who vandalized the Central Park statue with spray paint on Sunday around 11:30pm. Investigators believe the suspects are a man and a woman based on unreleased footage, according to the New York Post.

Photos of the statue on Monday morning showed the words 'land back' and 'murder' written on the historic statue that has sat in the park since 1894.

By the afternoon, the paint appeared to be washed off from the barricaded statue as the red residue was seen washed away on the floor.

The controversial statue has received past threats from people wanting to tear it down over 'a 400-year-old historical squabble.'

Police are on the hunt for two people they believe to be a man and a woman, who defaced the Central Park statue with spray paint on Sunday around 11:30pm

Photos of the statue on Monday morning showed the words 'land back' and 'murder' written on the historic statue that has sat in the park since 1894

The Christopher Columbus statue was gifted to Central Park in 1892 by the Genealogical and Biographical Society in honor of the explorer's 400th anniversary of his arrival to the new world, according to the NYC Parks website.

The statue is a replica of the one created by artist Jeronimo Sunol that is located in Madrid, Spain.

Commemorations of Columbus have divided America for years as several argue his arrival led to the genocide of indigenous people.

To Native Americans, he is seen as a symbol of violence with his arrival in the continental US in 1492 unleashing centuries of European colonization and slavery.

But to the Italian American population, he is a hero providing a cultural icon for Italian immigrants to hold on to when they arrived on US soil in the late 1880s and faced xenophobia.

There are five Columbus in the city's parks including one each in Central Park in Manhattan, Columbus Circle in Manhattan, Columbus Park in Downtown Brooklyn, D'Auria Murphy Park in the Bronx, and Columbus Square in Astoria, Queens.

The monuments often become the focal points for local Columbus Day parades and festivities.

The controversial statue has received past threats from 'psychotic leftists' threatening to tear it down over 'a 400-year-old historical squabble'

The Christopher Columbus statue was gifted to Central Park in 1892 by the Genealogical and Biographical Society in honor of the explorer's 400th anniversary of his arrival to the new world

In February 2021, NYPD guarded the various statues around the clock amid threats it would be torn down as the nation called for an end to systemic racism following the death of George Floyd in June 2020. 

At the time, a police source told the New York Post the monument in Columbus Circle was 'a known target.'  

Statues, flags and displays of Confederate or racist symbols and historical figures have been taken down or toppled across America.

The recent Central Park incident is a common occurrence among Columbus statues.

On Columbus Day in November 2020, a statue in Rhode Island was splashed with red paint amid calls to rename the day Indigenous Peoples' Day. 

In July 2020, figures in Grant Park and Little Italy in Chicago were taken down by city officials after thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters called for their removal. 

This came after California officials removed a monument of Columbus from the state capitol, ruling the presence of the 'deeply polarizing historical figure' was 'completely out of place today' while a statue in Boston was beheaded the same month.

Who was Christopher Columbus and why is he so divisive? 

Christopher Columbus, (1451 - 1506)

Christopher Columbus, (1451 - 1506) born in the Republic of Genoa (now Italy), was a 15th century navigator who began European incursions into the Americas. Native American activists believe the navigator was responsible for centuries of indigenous genocide.       

Like Aristotle and others, Columbus believed that the world was round. He theorized that the distance between Spain's Canary Islands and Japan was only around 2,300 miles (3,701 kilometers) and felt he could sail west to reach Asia for a new sought-out route for spices. It was really about 12,000 miles (19,321 kilometers). Columbus based his incorrect calculations on mystical texts, and ended up landing in the present-day Caribbean on Oct. 12, 1492. 

Columbus convinced Spain's Queen Isabella to fund his voyage by promising that the riches he'd collect would be used to finance a crusade to 'reclaim' Jerusalem for Christians. Instead, he found new foods, animals and indigenous people who, he wrote, were childlike and could be easily turned into slaves.

As indigenous populations revolted against brutal Spanish treatment, Columbus ordered a ruthless crackdown that included having dismembered bodies being paraded in public. Eventually, Columbus was arrested on mismanagement and brutality charges and died soon after.

Around 60 years after Columbus' arrival, the Taino indigenous population of the Caribbean had been reduced from an estimated 250,000 people to a few hundred because of slavery and death from new diseases. 

However for many Italian Americans the Italian explorer continues to be an important symbol in their heritage. 

Millions of Italian immigrants traveled across the Atlantic to Ellis Island in New York to start a new life in America in the late 1880s to 1920s.

They faced xenophobia and prejudice, including one of the largest single mass lynchings in American history when 11 were murdered in 1891 in New Orleans. 

The Italian explorer thereby became a cultural hero for Italian immigrants to hold on to during this time and Columbus Day parades began in the late 1800s.