Photo courtesy of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group

Vandals this week defaced a West Dallas mural that artist Shepard Fairey painted in 2011.

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Adding insult to injury, the vandals painted over the mural with a homophobic slur and a profanity.

Instagram screen shot

Update: It appears that a vandal initially painted over the mural with the homophobic slur and the name “Crome.” Someone with the Instagram handle @crometrig publicly posted the above photo on Nov. 23 but has since made their account private. After that “Crome” tag was removed, a vandal came through and painted over the whole mural, which could’ve been done quickly using a fire hydrant rigged with paint.

Those familiar with the mural say it was topped with a graffiti barrier coat, a “sacrificial layer” that allows graffiti to be removed from it, although that won’t be easy. We put in a call to the Belmont but haven’t heard back yet.

Photo courtesy of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group

The Dallas Contemporary commissioned the mural, which is on Fort Worth Avenue below the Belmont Hotel. Adjacent murals painted by local artists weren’t vandalized.