Visitors to San Francisco’s famous farmers’ market were recently surprised to find the statue of Mahatma Gandhi that faces the Bay Bridge had glowing red eyes. It turned out a prankster added red lights to the eyes of the bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi near the Ferry Building, and the photos are now going viral. The bronze statue was installed in 1988 and has been vandalised multiple times, with the spectacles going missing more than once. The city’s Arts Commission, which oversees the statue and other public works of art, reportedly keeps some spare spectacles just in case it happens. However, this time, apart from the addition of the red LED lights there was no other damage caused. Pictures of the incident went viral after one Redditor named VickyOneTime shared the images with the title, “What I can only imagine was Winston Churchill’s nightmare…”. Undated photos also showed an unidentified man climbing to the statue, which is a gift from the Gandhi Memorial International organisation, and adding the lights to the statue’s eyes. The photos garnered a lot of attention on Reddit, before being shared on Facebook and Instagram. Opinions over the act of vandalism were divided, with some saying the addition of the red lights was a welcome one while others condemned it.
