The tomb of Karl Marx in London’s Highgate cemetery has been vandalised for the second time in a fortnight.
In bright red paint, the words “Doctrine of Hate”, “Architect of Genocide” and “Memorial to Bolshevik Holocaust” were daubed on the grave of the German philosopher.
The monument in north London was subject to a hammer attack on 5 February, after which the charity that manages the cemetery said the tomb would “never be the same again”.
The latest incident, which appears to have occurred on Friday night, 15 February, was reported after Maxwell Blowfield, 31, saw the damage when he visited the cemetery on Saturday morning with his mother.
He said: “It’s a shame. The red paint will disappear, I assume, but to see that kind of level of damage – and to see it happen twice – is not good.
“I wouldn’t like to say who did it or why, but it was clearly someone very critical of Marx and that part of history. I am just surprised that in 2019 somebody feels they need to do something like that.”
During the earlier attack on the tomb, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, a hammer was taken to the lettering of Marx’s name and the marble on which it is mounted, and which was taken from Marx’s original 1883 gravestone and incorporated into the 1954 monument.
No one has been arrested over the first incident, described by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust as clearly a “deliberate and sustained attack”. The group has yet to comment on the second incident, which appears to have caused less lasting damage than the previous attack.
The monument is owned by the Marx Grave Trust, which is represented by the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell.
