On Sunday morning, Moscow police responded to alleged vandalism on the new Joe Vandal statue outside of the Kibbie Dome. This nine-foot-tall statue had just been unveiled on Sunday. But with a closer look, it turned out to be something much simpler — oxidization.
Craig Carson, the director of grounds, said that when Joe Vandal was being transported from Montana to Idaho, the statue was driven through snowy conditions with salt on the roads. This caused some of the brown colored wax to be rubbed off the back of the statue.
“When he got here, it didn’t look particularly bad, but over time, and a little bit of rain we had, I think, helped speed up the oxidation process,” Carson said.
With the wax being rubbed off and the rain, it led to the statue looking vandalized. To the people who saw the oxidation, it appeared to look like two circles, or the word “GO.”.
“By Monday morning, people were kind of freaking out because they thought that somebody had painted something on his back,” Carson said. “But it wasn’t; he’s just oxidizing.”
Carson says that the artist, Gareth Curtiss, will be back in the spring to rewax the statue.
Reagan Jones can be reached at [email protected].