Karl Marx’s tomb in London vandalised in ‘targeted attack’
- A marble plaque on the tomb was repeatedly hit with a blunt instrument
Vandals have smashed and defaced the London tomb of Karl Marx in what the cemetery said appeared to be a deliberate attack against the philosopher’s ideology.
A marble plaque with the names of Marx and his family – the monument’s oldest and most fragile part – was repeatedly hit with a blunt metal instrument, said Ian Dungavell, who runs the cemetery trust, on Tuesday. The damage was discovered on Monday, he said.
“The name of Karl Marx seems to have been particularly singled out, so it wasn’t just a random smashing up of a monument – it seems a very targeted attack on Karl Marx,” said Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, the charity which runs the graveyard.
German revolutionary philosopher Marx moved to London in 1849 and lived in the British capital for the rest of his life. He died on March 14, 1883, aged 64.
The granite slab monument in north London, 3.7m (12 feet) tall and topped with a bronze bust of Marx, was funded in 1956 by the Communist Party of Great Britain.