A sculpture of a stone buffalo near the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue is pictured on Nov. 25, 2017.

The holiday spirit came and went quickly for one usually festive Lawrence sculpture.

The city’s stone buffalo displayed its annual Christmas wreath only briefly over the weekend. Now the sculpture is bare except for spray-painted graffiti.

Lawrence Director of Arts and Culture Porter Arneill said the city will have to assess how to remove the paint without damaging the sculpture. He said he hopes it is an easy fix, but right now he doesn’t know.

“If it is spray paint, that can be problematic on stone because it can actually seep into the stone itself,” Arneill said.

The buffalo is located in a small area of prairie grass near the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue. Both sides of the buffalo were spray-painted with a silver reflective paint. The paint was sprayed on the buffalo’s eyes and both its sides. The graffiti reads “LK Kings” and “LKK” and also includes a depiction of a crown on the buffalo’s west side.

A sculpture of a stone buffalo near the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue is pictured on Nov. 25, 2017.

For years, neighbors near the sculpture have decorated it for various holidays and occasions. The buffalo was dressed as a ghost for Halloween and had just donned its garb for this time of year, an evergreen wreath with red ribbon. The wreath hung around the buffalo’s neck for the start of the season on Friday, but come Saturday morning the sculpture had been sprayed with graffiti. Neighbors took down the wreath for safekeeping until the sculpture is cleaned, according to a post in a local Facebook group.

Arneill said he planned to assess and take pictures of the graffiti and sculpture Monday afternoon. He said the city needs to determine what kind of paint was used, the type and grade of stone, and whether the sculpture was treated with any kind of polish.

“All of that comes to bear,” Arneill said. “These things have to be handled pretty carefully to make sure that you don’t damage the surface and cause further problems down the road.”

The graffiti was reported to the Lawrence Police Department on Saturday, according to Sgt. Amy Rhoads. Rhoads said in an email that the “LK Kings” graffiti on the stone buffalo was the only such graffiti reported and that she is not otherwise familiar with the group.

The buffalo sculpture was designed by sculptor Jim Patti as part of the 1988 Kansas Sculpture Association Stone Symposium, according to Journal-World archives. The program was designed to promote interest in sculpture and the use of Kansas limestone, and it included area sculptors such as Elden Tefft, Jim Bass and Keith Middlemas.