The New York Public Library is facing up to $75,000 in cleanup costs following recent pro-Palestinian protests in which demonstrators marred the famous façade of its landmark Manhattan building with blood-red handprints.
The library’s flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman building in Midtown was defaced so badly during the demonstrations that some of its carved marble reliefs may need to be replaced, officials said.
“On Thanksgiving, individuals involved in a protest engaged in a shameful act of vandalism to the Library’s flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman building, a space devoted to the open exchange of ideas and intellectual debate,” library spokeswoman Jennifer Fermino told the Washington Post.
“This comes at a time when the city’s libraries are facing steep budget cuts that have left us unable to maintain our current levels of service, and this vandalism will be costly to repair.”
The library has been the target of vandals several times in recent weeks during three separate pro-Palestinian protests, but the damage incurred on Thursday was “the most costly and extensive,” Fermino told The Post.
“It is too early to say the costs of fixing the damages but the repair costs for all could be between 60k and 75k.”
Much of the damage took place on Thursday after hundreds of protesters disrupted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, donning white jumpsuits and drenching themselves in fake blood, some gluing their hands to the street in the middle of Sixth Avenue.
After the parade, some of the protesters made their way to the library’s Fifth Avenue entrance where they vandalized the marble bases of the building’s iconic columns, and scrawled the words “free Palestine” in dark green spray paint on the flagship building.
Some of the graffiti covered delicately carved portions of the structure, which will be difficult to clean without causing further damage, requiring multiple applications of solvent over several days, Garrett Bergen, director of facilities for the library, told Gothamist.
“We could have to replace certain elements if a rosette is too damaged for the paint to be removed. So it’s a little unclear,” Bergen said.
Up-close images of the damage show thick red paint pooling at the base of the column support and dripping down the steps of the library — which is facing budget cuts from the Adams administration.
The building that bore the brunt of the vandalism is named for Stephen A. Schwarzman, a wealthy Jewish businessman and philanthropist who donated $100 million toward the library’s expansion in 2008.
In all, at least 34 protesters were arrested on Thursday, charged with offenses ranging from disorderly conduct and resisting arrest to harassment, cops said.
It was not immediately known how many of the arrests took place outside the library, which was closed for the holiday.
