Sculpture of former player on Gwangju sidewalk damaged again

Drunk man in his 20s turns himself in, says he broke it while intoxicated

The statue of former baseball player Kim Sung-han, installed on the sidewalk of Fashion Street in Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju (right), and the damage caused by a drunk man in the early hours of Saturday. [Gwangju Buk-gu District Office]
The statue of former baseball player Kim Sung-han, installed on the sidewalk of Fashion Street in Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju (right), and the damage caused by a drunk man in the early hours of Saturday. [Gwangju Buk-gu District Office]

A statue of former Haitai Tigers baseball player Kim Sung-han, installed in Buk-gu, Gwangju, has been vandalized again — this time snapped clean off at the knees by a drunk man in his 20s. It is the third time the sculpture of the player nicknamed "O-ring Buttocks" has been damaged.

The Gwangju Northern Police Station said Monday that police have booked a man in his 20s, identified only as A, on charges of property destruction and are investigating him without placing him in detention.

A is suspected of damaging the Kim Sung-han statue on the sidewalk of Fashion Street in Yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, at around 3:40 a.m. Saturday.

After reviewing closed-circuit television footage near the statue, the local merchants' association found that a man who had stepped out of the passenger seat of a car shook the statue with his hands until it toppled over, then fled.

Officers who responded to a witness report found the statue had been broken off entirely above the knees and took it into temporary storage.

A, who lives in Seoul, called the Buk-gu District Office duty room Sunday afternoon, admitted he had broken the statue while drunk and said he would pay for the damage.

Buk-gu installed the commemorative statue — honoring Kim, a promotional ambassador for the street — as part of a project to develop Yongbong Fashion Street in 2020, spending several million won on it. Standing 1.5 meters tall, the sculpture depicts Kim in a Haitai Tigers uniform holding a baseball bat. The bat was broken off by a drunk person in May 2023 and repaired in September the following year, only for another intoxicated visitor to damage the same spot a month later.

The district replaced the original wooden bat with an aluminum one, but this time it was the legs that gave way.

Buk-gu plans to repair the statue and then seek damages from A. The district said it would also consider measures such as placing a barrier rope around the sculpture to keep people at a distance.


jshan@heraldcorp.com