George Segal's The Holocaust

The San Francisco Arts Commission was alerted Tuesday morning to another egregious act of vandalism to The Holocaust, 1982 by George Segal. The artwork — consisting of 11 life-size figures cast in bronze, painted white, and arranged behind a barbed-wire fence — is a powerful memorial to the victims of the Holocaust located in the grove of trees across from the entrance of the Legion of Honor. The artwork was commissioned by the Mayor’s Committee for a Memorial to the Six Million Victims of the Holocaust and was given as a gift to the City in 1984.

This is the third time in as many months that the sculpture has been defaced by vandals with a political agenda. Due to the quick response by the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks, we were able to significantly diminish the appearance of the majority of damage to the artwork on-site Tuesday morning. However, further intervention by a fine arts conservator is still needed, and funding is scarce. The Arts Commission is working closely with the San Francisco Police Department to address the ongoing security needs of the artwork