Breaking News: Queen Victoria Statue Defaced with Red Paint During King Charles’ Royal Tour of Australia …. Read More

The vandalism took place a day after the monarch was heckled by an Australian lawmaker

A statue of King Charles’ great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, in Sydney was vandalized with red paint just hours before he made a public appearance nearby during his royal tour of Australia and Samoa.

On Oct. 22, the statue, which was relocated from Ireland after the country’s break from the British crown and now stands outside the Queen Victoria Building, was defaced. Red paint was splattered across its plinth and at the base of Queen Victoria’s royal robes, as captured in footage shared by Sky News Australia.

About 5.30am today (Tuesday 22 October 2024), police were called to Queen Victoria Building, Market Street, Sydney CBD, following reports a statue had been vandalised,” a spokesperson for the New South Wales Police said in a statement to PEOPLE.

“Officers attached to Sydney City Police Area Command have established a crime scene and an investigation has commenced. As inquiries continue, anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000,” they said.

The statue of the King’s great-great-great grandmother was defaced the day after an Australian lawmaker heckled the sovereign at the Australian Parliament in Canberra.

The effigy of the late Queen Elizabeth’s ancestor was first installed in Dublin in 1908 as “Ireland’s principal memorial to her” to honor the jubilees of her reign, according to the Dictionary of Sydney from the State Library of New South Wales.

In 1922, it was removed from Leinster House when the Irish Free State made it the hub of the Irish Legislature as Ireland broke away from the British crown. Years later, the statue was transported to Sydney and unveiled there in 1987.

“The last royal statue to be raised in Ireland is also the last royal statue to be erected in Australia,” the dictionary entry noted.

The vandalism took place on the fifth day of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s royal tour of Australia and Samoa, a milestone as it’s their first tour to Commonwealth realms since Charles became King, and their longest journey abroad since Buckingham Palace revealed the monarch’s diagnosed with cancer. Despite the incident, the royals remained in high spirits during their appearances in Sydney on Oct. 22, where King Charles visited the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence and the Melanoma Institute Australia, the world’s leading facility for melanoma research and treatment.

The royal couple’s ninth stop of the day took them to the iconic Sydney Opera House, just over a mile from the Queen Victoria Building, where they connected with the gathered crowd of well-wishers.

On Oct. 21, Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian politician, called from the back of the chamber about claims of “genocide” and then said, “Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” according to video shared by The Telegraph.

You destroyed our land, give us a treaty—we want a treaty, we want a treaty with this country,” said Thorpe.

The sovereign reportedly didn’t react to the outcry, and Buckingham Palace had no comment on the protest.

King Charles, 75, has reportedly maintained that “whether Australia becomes a republic is… a matter for the Australian public to decide.” His aides have said it is up to the people of any of the states where he is King to determine their own destiny around the crown.