The Parque Museo la Venta is an outdoor park and museum, featuring stone heads and other artifacts from the Olmeca culture. It uniquely allows people to get up close to these impressive structures, which means, it has unfortunately made the park a victim of vandalism more than once. Recently, two men damaged 15 items at the Tabasco-based park, created in the late 1950s, with oil.
The Instituto Estatal de Cultura reports that police arrested the two Indonesian men responsible for the vandalism. The pieces that saw damage were the columnas de basalto, El Trono, La Abuela, El Viejo Guerrero, La Inconclusa, altar Cuadrangular, El Altar de los Niños, Altar de los Tecolotes, and Mono Mirando al Cielo.
Archaeologists are now assessing the damage, according to Juan Antonio Ferrer Aguilar, a representative for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. In the next few weeks, specialists from Mexico City will arrive to restore the pieces.