{"id":283600,"date":"2025-11-26T02:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283600\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:43:10","slug":"beloved-mural-known-as-mona-lisa-of-butetown-disappears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283600\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved mural known as ‘Mona Lisa of Butetown’ disappears"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mural was designed to celebrate ethnic minorities in Cardiff<\/p>\n

22:52, 25 Nov 2025Updated 23:00, 25 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

\"AA cream wall has appeared in place of the impressive mural(Image: WalesOnline)<\/p>\n

A prominent mural in the heart of Cardiff Bay<\/a> has suddenly disappeared after seemingly being painted over with cream paint. Described as the “Mona Lisa” of Butetown<\/a>, the unmissable painting was designed to celebrate the diversity of Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Organised by Cardiff<\/a> creatives Unify, the ‘My City, My Shirt’ mural was first painted at its original location on Bute Street in April 2021 as part of a project of the same name with the intention of encouraging more people of colour to connect with their city and football club.<\/p>\n

Located on the side of a three-storey building, the mural depicted Maimuna Yoncana, originally from Guinea-Bissau, wearing a Cardiff City shirt and cradling her baby bump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In October 2021, the painting was controversially defaced with white paint<\/a> prompting a police investigation a GoFundMe page to be set up to cover the costs of repairing the damage.<\/p>\n

After the incident the mural was repainted on the opposite side of the road where it had been up until the week commencing November 17.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe striking mural was inspired by a photo of Maimuna Yoncana(Image: WalesOnline\/ Rob Browne)<\/p>\n

It was also painted over in 2022 to make way for a McDonald’s advert, but after an outpouring of anger the restaurant instructed the mural’s artists to repaint it.<\/p>\n

When the mural was first painted, Yusuf told WalesOnline that it had been inspired by his experience attending Cardiff City home games and noticing only a small handful of supporters from ethnic minorities in the stands.<\/p>\n

Yusuf, and Shawqi Hasson, hoped that the mural would help minority communities identify with the capital, and the football club, and feel proud of their “dual heritage”.<\/p>\n

Its location in Butetown symbolises that perfectly because it is situated in the oldest black community in Wales. They also said it was important to uplift the area’s community at a time when they said they had been left deeply hurt after serious concerns were raised about the treatment of Mohamud Hassan during his time in police custody before he died in January 2021.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe mural was part of a larger “My City, My Shirt” project across the city(Image: WalesOnline)<\/p>\n

Shawqi added: “The project behind the mural, and the entire project is to showcase that you don’t really need to be a football fan. Just by wearing the shirt it represents you’re from Cardiff, you should be proud to live and to call Cardiff your home no matter who you are, what background you’re from.”<\/p>\n

Unify have masterminded several paintings around the city including the Gary Speed mural near the Cardiff City Stadium, Jess Fishlock on a football court in Splott Court, as well as temporary art which has been part of a variety of campaigns in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mural was designed to celebrate ethnic minorities in Cardiff 22:52, 25 Nov 2025Updated 23:00, 25 Nov 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,115622,2188,115621,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-283600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-butetown","12":"tag-cardiff","13":"tag-cardiff-bay","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}