When was the surface of Christ statue in Rio vandalized with graffiti?

In April 2010, vandals covered the arms, the head, and the chest of the Christ statue with spray-painted graffiti. Cariocas (Rio de Janeiro natives) couldn’t believe the news, and the mayor was inflamed.

The vandals arrived on Corcovado summit around 2:00 a.m. and took advantage of the time gap between the guard’s shifts. The surveillance system was also off due to the heavy rains that had hit Rio de Janeiro the previous week. Scaffolding that surrounded the statue for restoration purposes allowed the vandals to reach various points of the Christ statue.

They scrawled phrases such as “React Rio!” and “When the cat’s away, the rat will play” in reference to unsolved crimes in Rio de Janeiro. Restoration workers quickly removed the graffiti from the Christ the Redeemer statue.

Just a few days later, Paulo Souza dos Santos, 28, and Edmar Batista de Carvalho, 26, confessed to Brazilian media that they were the authors of the vandalism. Each may face up to three years in prison if they are found guilty of an environmental crime, as Corcovado Mountain is in the Tijuca National Forest, and of course, for vandalizing a religious image.

A couple of weeks later, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, launched the Anti-Graffiti Program designed to curtail graffiti on city properties. On this occasion, the Christ statue’s vandals were ‘invited’ to work on cleaning the wall of a tunnel that connects two neighborhoods in Rio. This was done to show that they had regretted their act and to acknowledge that they realize how hard it is to clean spray-painting off a wall.

According to the Mayor, Rio de Janeiro spends R$300,000 (roughly US$150,000; €120,000) annually in cleaning graffiti from public buildings walls.

Learn more about the statue in the downloadable PDF e-book Christ the Redeemer Statue – A Comprehensive Guidebook to Visiting the Rio de Janeiro Landmark atop Corcovado Mountain.