“So far, a foreign citizen has been identified as a suspect, who has already committed acts of a similar nature in other places and who, in the meantime, has been absent from the country", said the PSP in a statement.

The investigation into the act of vandalism against the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument of Discoveries) is being investigated by the PJ, who received a report of the occurrence on the morning of 9 August and proceeded with the “necessary investigative and expert steps through the Directorate of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the Laboratory of the Scientific Police, for the collection of evidence and for the discovery of the authorship of the illicit act”.

According to the PJ, "the investigation continues with the adoption of procedural measures appropriate to the situation."

On 9 August, the Lisbon City Council published a press release on their website stating that the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a monument located in the Lisbon parish of Belém, had been vandalised on Sunday and that the cleaning of the monument had begun in the afternoon “after the conclusion of investigations at the scene by the Judiciary Police”.

According to the municipality, which took over the cleaning of the some 20 metres of graffiti along the monument “all acts of vandalism against the collective heritage of the city are unacceptable”.

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos, in Lisbon, was vandalised on Sunday with graffiti on one of the sides of the monument, covering a length of about 20 meters and written in English, the Public Security Police (PSP) told Lusa.
The message reads, in English, “Blindly sailing for monney [sic], humanity is drowning in a scarllet [sic] sea lia [sic]”.

The occurrence was registered by the PSP around 11:30 am on Sunday, and the incident was communicated to the Municipality of Lisbon, who oversees the monument.

Designed by architect Cottinelli Telmo, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos was built for the Exhibition of the Portuguese World, in 1940, but was remade in reinforced concrete and rose stone from Leiria, between 1958 and 1960, having been inaugurated in January of that same year, during the fifth centenary of the death of Infante Dom Henrique.