December 25th, 2022 by WCBC Radio

WBAL reports someone defaced and stole a portion of the Harriet Tubman statue at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis.

"We suspect that on Friday evening or early Saturday morning, persons dismembered the finger of Harriet Tubman to take the vévé, which is the staff Harriet Tubman was holding (that was) attached to the statue," said the museum's executive director, Chanel Compton.

Installed in September 2022, the monumental statue, Araminta with Rifle and Vévé, sits in front of the museum on view along Franklin Street in Annapolis.

"This piece means so much. It was in honor of the bicentennial of Harriet Tubman. It means so much to our institution, but to people all over our state and beyond," Compton said.

Joyce Scott, a well-known, critically acclaimed artist from Baltimore, created the staff.