Restored Morse lipstick sculpture ‘vandalized’ with chalk graffiti

Kiva Bank, Olivia Cyrus & Jerry Gao

2:53 am, Oct 28, 2025

Staff Reporters

Henry Liu, Contributing Photographer

Graffiti was found on the newly reinstalled Morse lipstick sculpture Monday morning. 

The letters “ATB” were drawn with chalk on the sculpture, the door of the Morse Tower and on surrounding concrete. Two weeks ago, the sculpture, entitled “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks,” was put back in the Morse courtyard after three months of restoration in response to environmental degradation. 

“This morning we learned Claes Oldenburg’s Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks sculpture was vandalized,” Roland Coffey, the director of communications for the Yale University Art Gallery, wrote in an email to the News on Monday. “We are working closely with our colleagues at Morse College to address the situation.”

Coffey also said the Yale Police Department was made aware of the incident. Yale Police chief Anthony Campbell  ’95 DIV ’09 did not immediately respond to the News’ requests for comment. 

Mila McKay ’27, who lives in Morse Tower, said that before she left for class at approximately 9:15 a.m. Monday, she noticed a crowd of students and Morse Dean Blake Trimble surveying the markings.

Around 10 a.m., Head of College Catherine Panter-Brick and a YUAG photographer took pictures at the scene.

Panter-Brick declined to respond to the News’ request for comment. Trimble also declined to comment and referred the News to the YUAG.

The letters “ATB” are affiliated with the Baker’s Dozen, one of Yale’s a cappella groups. A link that says “ATB Zone” appears on the bottom of the group’s webpage and leads to a password protected page. The majority of the group’s Instagram posts are signed off with “BDs, ATB.” 

John Raskopf ’27, a member of the Spizzwinks a capella group, said he thought it was “plausible” to connect the graffiti with the Baker’s Dozen — or a subset of the group’s members — because of their association with the “ATB” lettering. Potentially, Raskopf said, the group was framed by someone else since the lettering “is such a recognizable symbol.”

The musical director and business manager for the Baker’s Dozen, as well as three other members, did not immediately respond to the News’ requests for comment Monday evening.

Raskopf said that chalking symbols around campus is a tradition of the a cappella community that extends beyond the Baker’s Dozen. The Spizzwinks, for example, typically draw their signature question mark in parentheses on the blackboards of classrooms they use. 

Additional “ATB” lettering was found near the intersection of Canal and Lock Streets west of Pauli Murray College, as well as on the base of the statue of Willliam Lanson, which is located on the Farmington Canal. As of 7 p.m. Monday, the graffiti on Canal Street was still visible.

By 5:30 p.m. Monday, the graffiti on the lipstick sculpture was removed. Steven Gilsdorf, Yale’s director of facilities operations, wrote that Yale Facilities aims to remove graffiti within 24 hours of receiving a report. He also said that the graffiti was against University regulations on chalking and postering. 

“Facilities Operations is responsible for cleaning the interior and exterior of buildings and grounds in the university’s portfolio. In this case, a combination of maintenance and grounds crew removed the graffiti,” Gilsdorf wrote.

The Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks sculpture by Claes Oldenburg was first made in 1969.

Henry Liu contributed reporting.