The “Unconditional Surrender” statue in Florida, which portrays a sailor kissing a woman at the end of Word War II, was defaced with “#MeToo” red paint a day after the man in the famous photo capturing the kiss died at the age of 95.
At approximately 12:53 am, our Officers were dispatched to the intersection of N Gulfstream Ave & Bayfront Dr reference to an unknown individual spray painting ‘# MeToo’ on the Unconditional Surrender statue. Additional information is at https://t.co/gv10lGhcja pic.twitter.com/JakU8aI7QY
— SarasotaPD (@SarasotaPD) February 19, 2019
The Sarasota Police Department said they responded to reports of someone spray painting one of the legs of the woman in the statue, but a search failed to yield either the spray paint bottles or a suspect.
Police said the paint was removed on Monday after estimating the cost of the damage would be over $1,000.
The inspiration for the sculpture stems from an Aug. 14, 1945, photo in which a sailor in New York City’s Times Square kissed a woman after it was announced Japan surrendered in World War II.
George Mendonsa, who long claimed to be the sailor in the photo, died on Sunday. The woman, Greta Friedman, was unknown to Mendonsa, but he pulled her in for a kiss on V-J Day. Mendonsa claimed that because of her outfit, he believed Friedman to be a nurse who served in the war and wanted to celebrate with her, but she later revealed she was a dental assistant and happened to be wearing all white.
