The world’s first statue of David Bowie, which had been placed in Buckinghamshire, has been vandalised just 48 hours after being unveiled

The statue, which features different Bowie personas, is located in Aylesbury market square – close to town’s Friars music venue where the late icon is said to have debuted Ziggy Stardust in the early 1970s.

The memorial, which was totally funded by fans having successfully raised £100,000 with a Kickstarter campaign, has been covered in graffiti that reads “feed the homeless first” and “RIP DB”.

Deputy Mayor Mark Willis has stressed that no public money was spent on the statue: “I want to point out that this statue received precisely £0 of public money”, he said.

“That’s right, £0. It was entirely funded through crowdfunding, by members of the public, myself included.

“One of the charities I support monthly is Shelter as homelessness and poverty are absolute scourges on society that need solving.”

David Stopps, who was the David Bowie fan who made the statue a reality, told Mix96: “I was very disappointed that this has happened, but when I went to see it; it could have been a lot worse. We’re busy cleaning it up now.

“The paint was on the statue, the wall behind and on the pavement. It was about the homeless – but I do quite a lot for the homeless, which is the irony of the whole thing.”