Muralist Mokhtar Paki (left) and assistants Masoud Salamat and O’Brian Thiele repair Paki’s “Sinbad Voyage” mural on Dwight Way on Aug. 29. Credit: David Bacon for Berkeleyside

After 40 days of painstaking work, and with the assistance of friends, neighbors, volunteers, and hired help, artist Mokhtar Paki has restored his mural on the corner of Dwight Way and Sacramento Street after it was vandalized. 

The mural, which depicts 400 immigrants crammed inside a boat, was splattered with thick white paint on the night of Aug. 19, according to the Berkeley Police Department. The paint covered nearly half of the people depicted in the mural. 

Titled “Sinbad Voyage,” the mural was created by Paki in 2023 to highlight the resilience of immigrants. But it took on a deeper meaning after the reelection of President Trump in 2024 and the subsequent arrests and deportations of immigrants by ICE forces. And its defacement rallied the neighborhood. 

Many neighbors made homemade signs with phrases like “Immigrants are the backbone of USA” and “Love your immigrant neighbor” and placed them along the sidewalk near the defaced mural. 

“It was like a little shrine,” said Paki. “It became like a movement here.”

Near the top of the restored mural, a wave-like portion of the vandal’s white paint remains. It’s bracketed off with a dashed rectangle, thus separated from the main artwork, but not erased completely. Below the mural, drips from the vandal’s paint are similarly bracketed.

“It’s part of the history of this mural,” he said. “So I didn’t want it to go away. I wanted everybody to remember that it went through this. Besides, the restoration period was as important for me as creating the mural. So why should I totally wipe it out?”

The restored mural leaves a portion of the vandal’s white paint at the top of the artwork, and below it. Credit: Tracey Taylor/Berkeleyside

A ceremony celebrating the mural’s reopening will be held Saturday, Nov. 14, at 11 a.m.

Berkeley police believe the defacement may be connected to “another act of vandalism approximately a block and a half away, where a suspect poured white paint onto the hood of a vehicle parked in a residential driveway,” according to a statement released in August.  

Police told Berkeleyside on Thursday they have no new leads in their investigation since the release of a security video of the suspect walking in the neighborhood on the night of the vandalism. BPD has “no evidence indicating that these crimes were directed at any specific individual or group,” the department’s spokesperson, Officer Byron White, said in a statement, asking anyone with information to call the Property Crimes Unit at 510-981-5737.

‘When I was able to bring her face out of the paint, I started to sob’

Community members propped up signs of support against the mural after it was vandalized. Credit: David Bacon for Berkeleyside

Paki, an Iranian immigrant who came to the United States in 1987, was out of the country when the vandalism took place, but drove directly to the mural from the airport after returning home. 

He immediately began making plans for the restoration. He spoke with expert muralists and other artists about the best way to bring the mural back to life. The main challenge was the thickness of the latex paint, which was difficult to remove without destroying the underlying artwork. Removal of the paint even took off chunks of concrete from the wall which had to be filled in and sanded before being repainted.

Nearly 100 faces are depicted in the mural, and many are based on people that Paki knows. One day during the restoration, Paki worked on a small section using a small jewelers tool for hours  to reveal the face of his friend — a fellow immigrant from Iran. 

“When I was able to bring her face out of the paint, I started to sob,” he said. “ It was like it was an earthquake and I found somebody alive in the rubble. 

Paki scrapes paint off the mural on Aug. 29. Credit: David Bacon for Berkeleyside

Paki said the restoration was highly emotional, mostly because of the outpouring of support from the community and the love and support they showed their immigrant neighbors. 

“There was not one day that I didn’t sob in the arms of somebody,” he said. “It wasn’t just restoration, it was really like facing the good side of the society.”

Paki raised more than $14,000 on GoFundMe to restore “Sinbad Voyage,” allowing him to purchase supplies and hire helpers. Dozens of other friends and neighbors volunteered their time or dropped off food for the workers or donated tools to the effort. He said the restoration experience was even more fulfilling than painting the original mural. 

“I thought that [restoration] would be a nightmare,” he said. “But no, this was one of the best artistic events that happened in my life. I think it was a rediscovery of the power of art and the power of a community when they are working together.”

“There was not one day that I didn’t sob in the arms of somebody,” Paki says. “It wasn’t just restoration, it was really like facing the good side of the society.” Credit: David Bacon for Berkeleyside

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