The Cultural Heritage Administration carries out restoration work on the damaged walls of the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, Dec. 17. Yonhap
New graffiti was found on the walls of Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, officials said Monday, a day after police began hunting down the suspects behind the 44-meter vandalism on the historic site.
The police received a report of new graffiti at 10:20 p.m. Sunday.
It was found on the left walls of the western gate to the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), where restoration work is under way by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) on the damaged parts from Saturday’s vandalism.
The CHA said the restoration will now take longer than a week.
A team of around 20 experts from the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and the National Palace Museum of Korea has been working to restore the damage since Saturday, using specialized equipment and chemicals, including steam cleaner and laser technology.
“However, the restoration process, initially estimated to take at least a week, will now need to be extended due to the additional damage,” the CHA said in a press release.
The graffiti measured 3 meters in length and 1.8 meters in height, with the names of a singer and an album sprayed in red, according to officials.
The police suspect the graffiti was a copycat crime from Saturday’s vandalism and plan to look into the relevance to the previous crime after an arrest is made.
They also plan to hold the suspect accountable for violating the Cultural Protection Heritage Act and are analyzing nearby surveillance cameras to identify the vandal.
The CHA plans to bolster security by installing 20 additional cameras outside the walls of the palace.
Currently, there are 415 cameras positioned at 200 locations within the palace and 14 at nine locations outside, according to the authority.
The incident came after an unidentified person sprayed graffiti spanning 44 meters, with the phrase “free movie” sprayed in Korean in red and blue paint on both sides of the western gate to the palace and palace walls near the National Palace Museum of Korea at around 1:50 a.m. on Saturday.
Also sprayed were the names of illegal video-sharing and streaming platforms, with similar graffiti found on the walls of the nearby Seoul Metropolitan Agency.
The police launched an investigation into the case and suspect two people are behind the act.
The vandals are known to have carefully dodged the many surveillance cameras nearby, making it harder to detect them, according to the officials. (Yonhap)