Cardiff's 'Mona Lisa' diversity mural vandalised

A mural painted to promote diversity and inclusion has been vandalised in Butetown, Cardiff.

The 'Mona Lisa' mural is part of the My City, My Shirt project, which aims to help minority communities identify more with Cardiff.

South Wales Police is investigating the vandalism as a hate crime.

"This is absolutely appalling. Shameful. If anyone knows what mindless idiots did this please report," Cardiff City Supporters' Trust tweeted.

The damage to the mural on James Street was reported on Monday, 4 October and is believed to have happened sometime overnight.

Inspector Kevin Jones, from the Community Safety Department of South Wales Police, said: "The My City My Shirt mural was painted as part of a community project celebrating Cardiff as a diverse city and is a much-praised piece of art.

"It would appear that white paint has been deliberately thrown onto the mural from the pavement area where there are also splashes of paint.

"Understandably, local residents, the artist and Unify Creative, who commissioned the project, are very upset by what has happened to this mural which represents Cardiff as a proud, welcoming and multi-cultural city."

Huw Thomas, leader of Cardiff Council, said: "Another symbol of everything that's wonderful about Cardiff is vandalised by a tiny, tiny few."

Organisers of the mural Yusuf Ismail and Shawqi Hasson of Unify Creative said they wanted to use football as a platform to do outreach in a "genuine and authentic" way.

"This is like a celebration of the multi-culturalism within Cardiff - everything that is good about Cardiff," said Mr Ismail.

"It had no negative connotations associated with it, so for somebody to deliberately vandalise a mural, it's just extremely disappointing."

The image featured local Butetown resident Maimuna Indjai, who visited the site to survey the damage on Tuesday.

"I was upset and sad, and disappointed," she told BBC Wales.

"I wasn't expecting something like that to happen."

A fundraising campaign has been set up to cover the costs of repairing the mural.

"It is hoped that we can collectively show hatred has no place in our city and racism has no place in sport, by working together to raise funds and restore the art work for all to enjoy," wrote Sarah Bowen, who launched the fundraiser.

Vaughan Gething, the MS for Cardiff South and Penarth, tweeted that the vandalism was "appalling".