ST JAMES, Jamaica — A team from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has been deployed to clean the statues in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, which were defaced recently.

Eight members from the conservation unit are now in the resort city to carry out the removal of green paint that was used to daub the five statues located in a monument dedicated to National Hero, Samuel Sharpe.

“We’ll be here for the entire week until Friday to do as much work as we can to try and get it back to a state of repair,” conservator at the JNHT, Rosales Rosedam, Conservator, told Observer online.

“We have been using some chemicals to remove both the paint and to treat the bronze statue in the process as well,” she said about their work so far.

On Monday, March 24, it was discovered that unscrupulous individuals had used a green paint to deface the structures located in the centre of the city.

Rosedam added that the team will be doing a comprehensive cleaning of the monument, not just the removal of the paint.

“We are trying to remove the bronze disease which is a type of corrosion of the metal, that’s separate and apart from the paint that is on it,” she explained.

“What we try to do is remove dust, debris first then we try to remove the paint, then the bronze disease,” she said.

She said that they have to be careful so as not to negatively impact the statues.

“We try to do all of this ethically because whatever we put on it, we try to ensure that the artist’s intentions remain the same and we don’t try to change any of that,” she said.

Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon could not hide his joy on seeing the commencement of the work.

“When we reached out to them, they committed to a quick response and so I am happy for the level of alacrity which they responded with and I am looking forward to the completion of the work and the statues being restored to their normal state,” he said.

He also used the opportunities to call on individuals to desist from defacing the city’s monuments.

“I’m doubling down on the call for persons to desist from damaging our monument but to instead help to protect the assets of Montego Bay,” he said.