Exhibit On Tolerance Defaced In Fla.

POSTED: 11:52 AM EST December 15, 2003

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- An international exhibit promoting peace and understanding was slashed and defaced with racial slurs, authorities said.

A passer-by called police Sunday to report that the "Coexistence" exhibit's billboard-size panels had been vandalized, St. Petersburg Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said. The exhibit had opened Saturday at a downtown park.

All but one of the 39 artworks had been cut or spray-painted with anti-black slurs, and police have labeled it a hate crime, Proffitt said. There were no suspects, he said Monday.

The exhibit, which began in Jerusalem in 2001, has toured cities in Europe and Africa. St. Petersburg is the second of 14 stops in the United States.

"We're leaving them just the way they are," said Stephen Goldman, director of the Florida Holocaust Museum, which is sponsoring the exhibit's stay in St. Petersburg. "If people are willing to vandalize things like this ... it's more necessary than we could possibly imagine. We need this for the city."

No special security precautions had been taken because no problems had been reported on previous stops, Goldman said.

The exhibit was scheduled to be in St. Petersburg until Jan. 25.
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