Vandals Victimize Bunny On Wash U Campus

A spray-paint toting Elmer Fudd defaced a famous sculpture of a wascally wabbit on the Washington University undergraduate campus last weekend.

(Dare you to say that five times fast.)

The art, formally titled Thinker on a Rock but known among students as "The Rabbit," is the work of the late Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan and has been on loan to the University from the Gateway Foundation since 2001.

According to Student Life, the tagging occurred late Friday evening and police have no suspects. The graffiti was done in gold paint and it sounds like removing it from the bronze statue without causing further damage will not be easy.

According to the Maintenance Operations signs, an art conservator must be called in to remove the paint and restore the statue to its original state.

"If you take off the spray paint, you take off the patina," Elizabeth Childs, associate professor of art history and archaeology said. "It's not like scrubbing grease paint off a piece of plastic...there will be a chemical interaction that will have to be addressed."

The Director of Maintenance Operations Bill Wiley called the incident "unfortunate." According to Wiley, the restoration process involves very small instruments and a very slow process. As of press time, Wiley was unsure how long it would take for the statue to be restored, though Maintenance Operations should have a better idea today or tomorrow. "We don't own the work," Wiley said. "We have to call in someone from the outside."

Comments on the student newspaper's website indicate not everyone on campus was fond of the Donnie Darko-esque lagomorph:

Stay classy, Wash U.