I understand it's a rivalry, but this is a bit over the line. Hopefully UCLA will get the last laugh. If this isn't motivation, I don't know what is.

Bruin statue damaged by vandals / UCLA Newsroom

Vandals ripped open a canvas tarpaulin protecting UCLA's iconic "Bruin" statue and splashed the bronze sculpture with red and yellow oil-based paint sometime Tuesday night or early this morning.

The statue, located on campus in Bruin Plaza, was damaged sometime between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, said UCLA Police Sgt. Paul Stewart. There were no witnesses to the vandalism, and police said they have no suspects. A felony vandalism report has been filed because the estimated cost of the damage is more than $400.

The statue had been covered by UCLA Facilities Management since Monday, a tradition that has been followed every year for more than 15 years during the week before the annual football game between UCLA and its crosstown rival, the University of Southern California. A message on the tarp had read, "The Bruin Bear is hibernating."

Police said the damaged tarp itself was spray-painted with obscenities. Vandals also left behind a can of spray paint.

"This probably ranks as one of the more egregious forms of vandalism of the bear that we've seen," said Leroy Sisneros, director of maintenance and alterations for UCLA Facilities Management, who recalled that the statue was last vandalized three years ago, when it was defaced with white paint, but not during UCLA–USC rivalry week.

"It took all day to clean in 2006. This is going to take a lot longer," Sisneros said. "It's going to be very expensive. In the past, vandals used water-based paint that can be washed off. But this time, they used an oil-based paint that will be more difficult to remove."

A UCLA crew was using acetone in an attempt to remove the paint without damaging the statue's patina. It was hoped that the paint could be removed by tonight.

Carpenters were on site preparing to construct a plywood enclosure for the statue to provide it with more protection.

In 1984, "The Bruin," a gift from the UCLA Alumni Association, was unveiled before a crowd of nearly 1,000 alumni celebrating the association's first half-century. Measuring 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, 3 feet across and weighing more than 2 tons, the statue was billed at that time as the largest bear sculpture in the United States.

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