Downtown Pensacola's 9-11 memorial arch vandalized, piece missing

A 9-11 memorial arch in downtown Pensacola that is seen by hundreds of people every weekend at the Palafox Market has been vandalized, and a piece of the arch is missing.

Officials don't know when the damage occurred.

The ceramic arch called “9-11 Homage to America” in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza is located near the prominent intersection of Palafox and Garden streets.

An approximately three-foot section of the base of the south-facing side of the arch is completely missing.

Pensacola public information officer Jason Wheeler said the city didn’t know the memorial was damaged when the News Journal contacted it on Thursday.

Wheeler said Parks and Recreation crews would assess the damage to the sculpture.

When exactly the damage occurred and where the missing pieces of the memorial are now are unknown.

Dan Lindemann, who owns the nearby A&J Mug Shop, noticed the damage last week while walking his dog in the plaza and reported it to the city.

The memorial arch has stood in the plaza for 20 years as a public memorial of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The 12-foot ceramic arch was made by husband-and-wife artists Peter King and Xinia Marin in the wake of the attack. The piece briefly toured art museums before being donated to the city by the artist.

The piece is meant to celebrate tolerance, diversity and peace, according to News Journal archives.

The abstract nature of the sculpture is filled with symbolism, including the Alpha and Omega symbols, a representation of an eternal flame, helping hands, wings carrying those lost into heaven, and writings in multiple languages that represent all the nationalities present during the 9-11 attack.

“It’s an honest piece,” King told the News Journal in 2004 when it was donated. “We felt compelled to respond to this attack. The people who attacked the World Trade Center thought they were attacking the United States, but they made a big mistake. They were attacking the human race.”

The News Journal’s efforts to reach King on Thursday and Friday were unsuccessful.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Downtown Pensacola's 9-11 memorial arch vandalized, piece missing