Damage done to Piglet statue amid protests in downtown Sacramento ‘mostly cleaned’

The piglet-inspired public artwork by world-renowned artist Jeff Koons at downtown Sacramento’s Downtown Commons — titled “Coloring Book #4” — did not sustain permanent damage despite being graffitied after Saturday night’s demonstrations against police brutality, according to city officials.

By Sunday morning, city workers had cleaned the piece, along with the similarly defaced “Missing the Mark” installation by local artist Gale Hart, whom some refer to as the city’s Godmother of Contemporary Art.

“We wanted to make sure we cleaned the work before the temperature got hotter,” said Leneé Eller, the city’s manager of public art. Eller said her team feared warmer temperatures in the daytime would harm the artworks’ materials.

Looters defaced both pieces in the waning hours of Saturday’s protests, which had been nonviolent for most of the day. Protestors tagged Coloring Book with “ACAB” and “BLM,” acronyms which stand for “All cops are bastards” and “Black Lives Matter,” respectively.

Crowds eventually moved eastwards, along J Street, through downtown and into the midtown business corridors before police moved in to disperse crowds.

Coloring Book stirred controversy when originally installed outside of Golden 1 Center in 2016, shortly before the arena opened. The piece, a part of the Koons’ Coloring Book series, cost $8 million, including $2.5 million in taxpayer funds.

At its installation in 2016, the piece was lauded as a centerpiece to DOCO and the redevelopment of downtown Sacramento.

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 12:58 PM.