Vandals repeatedly hit Polish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan with red paint

Thomas Tracy and Lincoln Anderson, New York Daily News on May 30, 2026

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NEW YORK — Vandals defaced the entrance to the Polish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan, covering the building in red paint twice in three days, police said Saturday.

The vandalism at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York on Madison Ave. near E. 37th St. began on Wednesday when someone spray-painted the front of the building and a statue of a man seated on a bench, before 7:50 p.m.

Cops were called, but the vandals, who marred the consulate’s front sign, as well as its wooden doors and marble entranceway, were long gone.

Detectives took a report and began investigating when cops were called back to the consulate around 8 a.m. on Friday, when more red graffiti was found.

This time, the vandals spray-painted both the surveillance cameras and the front door of a nearby building, cops said.

During one of the acts of vandalism, the suspects spray-painted the word “Terror” on signs outside the building, which is currently covered by construction scaffolding.

Elected officials who represent Polish residents in the city decried the vandalism Saturday.

“We are deeply disturbed by the repeated vandalism of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York,” the elected officials, including Councilmembers Phil Wong, D-Queens, Virginia Maloney, D-Manhattan, Lincoln Restler, D-Brooklyn, Harvey Epstein, D-Manhattan, and Frank Morano, R-Staten Island, said in a joint statement. “The fact that this diplomatic mission was targeted twice in just three days is unacceptable and demands a swift response from law enforcement.”

“Poland is one of America’s closest allies, and Polish Americans have made invaluable contributions to New York City’s neighborhoods, institutions and civic life,” the councilmembers said. “These acts are an attack on a diplomatic institution and the values of mutual respect and international friendship.”

No arrests have been made.

The consulate office was closed on Saturday. Attempts to reach an official at the consulate were unsuccessful.

Police were investigating the double acts of vandalism Saturday.

In addition, on Friday afternoon, just a few blocks away, near the United Nations, fresh graffiti could be seen scrawled on a wall on 42nd St. between First and Second Aves., blaring in 3-foot-tall black letters, “POLAND TERRORISM NAZI,” preceded by a Jewish star.

“Go back to Poland!” is an antisemitic slogan that has been heard at anti-Israel college protests, hurled by critics who accuse Israelis of being “settler-colonialists.” More than 3 million Jews from Poland were killed in the Holocaust, the most of any European country.

It was not immediately clear if the antisemitic graffiti near the U.N. was connected to the vandalism at the Polish Consulate.

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