A man has been spotted using a hammer to attack a statue on the outside of the BBC’s Broadcasting House in central London.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at around 4.15pm on Wednesday to Broadcasting House in Portland Street, Westminster, where a man had used a ladder to reach the 10ft tall figures above the front entrance.
A man after he climbed onto the statues Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare's play The Tempest by the sculptor Eric Gill outside of the BBC's headquarters in central London and hit them with hammer.
Ian West
The force said: “Officers attended and remain on scene attempting to engage with the man.
“Another man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.”
The sculpture, depicting Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, was installed in 1933, according to the BBC.
The sculptor, Eric Gill, is said to have sexually abused two of his daughters.
A biography on the Tate museum website said: “His religious views and subject matter contrast with his sexual behaviour, including his erotic art, and (as mentioned in his own diaries) his extramarital affairs and sexual abuse of his daughters, sisters and dog.”
A spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment.
The incident came a week after a jury cleared four people of criminal damage after they pulled down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
The bronze memorial to the 17th century figure was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol on June 7 2020, before being rolled into the water, and those responsible were acquitted on January 5 following an 11-day trial at the Old Bailey.