"A clear case of vandalism"

The artwork The Outlaw by Einar Jónsson has been vandalized at Hólavallacemetary in Reykjavík.

It seems that someone painted or sprayed the statue in gold, but it is uncertain exactly when it was done.

“This is a clear case of vandalism and a shocking thing to do,” Sig­urður Trausti Trausta­son, department manager of museum assets and research at the Reykjavík Art Museum, tells us.

Another one of Jónsson’s works that is damaged

“It was similarly done not too long ago with The Pioneer, which is also a work by Einar Jónsson, a bas relief on the base of the statue of Jón Sigurðsson,"  (also by Jónsson) that stands in front of the Parliamentary building at Austurvöllur.”

Traustason himself was the first to hear about the damage to the statue The Outlaw in a conversation with a journalist at mbl.is.

He says he will go to the area and examine the statue himself. Experts will then have to assess the damage and then clean-up work will be carried out as soon as possible.

A few days to fix

If this is a similar piece of vandalism to the one on ‘The Pioneer’, it may take a few days to restore the statue and restore it to its original state.

He says that cleaning up the pioneer has been quite successful, but the statue of The Outlaw is much bigger.

The Outlaw by Einar Jónsson stands at Hólavallakirkjugarður cemetary on the corner of Suðurgata and Hringbraut.

“The work depicts a man who carries a lifeless woman on his back and a child on his arm, and focuses on the wearying walking of the man and his sad face,” the work says on the website of the Reykjavik Art Museum.