Vandals wreck Telegraph’s JFK memorial

 A bust of John F Kennedy which was paid for by Sunday Telegraph readers has been removed from its plinth in London after being vandalised.

The memorial of the 35th US president stood in Marylebone Road, near Great Portland Street Tube station, for more than 40 years.

The bust was erected two years after the president was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963. It was paid for by newspaper readers who responded to an appeal for a monument in London to commemorate Kennedy. They raised more than £50,000.

The bust was cast in bronze by Jacques Lipchitz, the sculptor, and unveiled by the late president’s brother, Robert Kennedy, who was himself assassinated in 1968.

The bust has been removed after vandals damaged it and also put three gouges in the marble pedestal.

A sign on the empty pedestal reads: “Unfortunately, due to recent vandalism the JFK bust has had to be removed for conservation work.”