Update: Photos of Defaced Tau Sculpture

Editor's note: By the time we heard about the defacing of the Tau sculpture Friday morning and got to Meadowland Park for a photo, public works employees had already painted over the evidence. But reader Susan Napack sent several photos, which we've added to our photo gallery, so you can see for yourself what all the fuss was about.

Original story: The Tau sculpture was vandalized early Friday morning, only hours before its official dedication. But by 5 p.m., everything was back to normal and the ceremony took place as scheduled.

Judy Wukitsch, the Village's assistant director of recreation and cultural affairs, says she received a call at 5:45 a.m. from a painter who was visiting the site to complete some refurbishment in preparation for Friday's dedication and was informed that someone had spray painted four sides of the sculpture and smeared large swipes of excrement on two sides. Graffiti on the large face of the sculpture facing the duck pond read "$250,000 best Tony Smith hand job," and another side had the word "poop."

The incident took place some time between 3:23 a.m. and 6:01 a.m. between the times of patrol checks, according to Police Chief James Chelel. The painting was hosed down and repainted this morning.

By 5 p.m. Friday, a small crowd of about 100 people gathered at the site on a gorgeous spring evening. While a jazz quartet played and both kids and parents swayed to the beat, others enjoyed cookies and drinks, in what felt like an unofficial kickoff for spring and summer activities in the Village.

The Tau sculpture has drawn unwelcome attention previously. Since being installed in Meadowland Park last November, Tau was also vandalized by two juvenile females who were apprehended in the act, said Chelel.

The effort to bring Tau—a work by the late sculptor Tony Smith, a South Orange native—to the Village was a six-year undertaking, and the official dedication kicked off with a talk last night by Yale School of Art Dean Robert Storr at Seton Hall.

Tau became the subject of controversy in 2006, when it was revealed that the Village was paying for the installation of the sculpture at the site of the Sloan Street gazebo with a $250,000 bond. A grassroots movement resulted in a petition with 1,700 signatures, and the Board of Trustees agreed to move the sculpture to Meadowland Park and to limit the investment of public money to $170,000 that had already been spent. The balance was to be paid by the Tony Smith Sculpture Project through fundraising.

The South Orange Tau is the second edition of the sculpture; the first is at Hunter College in Manhattan. Tony Smith's estate allows for three to be produced.