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Italian Market says it’s getting rid of the Frank Rizzo mural

A statue of the former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner was removed from Thomas Paine Plaza on Wednesday. The mural has been in the market for nearly 25 years.

Mural of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo by artist Diane Keller and Mural Arts Program was vandalized again. The mural is in a small plaza on S. 9th and Montrose. Mural Arts and the Italian Market business owners are going to take it down.
Mural of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo by artist Diane Keller and Mural Arts Program was vandalized again. The mural is in a small plaza on S. 9th and Montrose. Mural Arts and the Italian Market business owners are going to take it down.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
    by Rob Tornoe
    Published 

A mural of former Philadelphia Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo that has stood in the Italian Market for nearly 25 years is coming down, too.

The South 9th Street Shopping District, property owners, and the Philadelphia Mural Arts program are working to create a new mural that “better represents” the fabric of the community, the United Merchants of the South 9th Street Business Association said in a statement.

Due to rain in the forecast again Thursday, the Rizzo mural will become “a blank canvas” as soon as possible, the statement said. It will ultimately be replaced by a new mural.

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“We agree it is time to replace this long-standing piece of art to begin to heal the Black community, the LGBTQ community and many others,” the Italian Market added.

The mural was created in 1995 but has been defaced multiple times over the years, painted over with phases such as “END COPS 4EVA,” “FASCISTA,” and “F– POLICE.” After the riots in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, the painting was defaced with the words “KILL KILLER COPS.”

The statue of Rizzo, which stood at Thomas Paine Plaza in front of the Municipal Services Building, was taken away and put into storage early Wednesday morning. The sculpture of the mayor, known for his aggressive treatment of black communities in Philadelphia, had loomed over Thomas Paine Plaza since 1999.