LIMA – The Cuzco Decentralized Culture Directorate reported Monday that vandals had painted eight graffiti with aerosols on five streets of the historic center of that ancient Inca city, which they called a crime against culture.

The graffiti were sprayed on the stone walls with black paint to form the word “KOYOS 16,” at a height of approximately 40 centimeters (16 inches), this Peruvian city’s Culture Directorate said.

“I express my strongest condemnation of these acts of vandalism and trust the Attorney General’s Office and the judiciary will find and punish the perpetrators of these graffiti that scar our cultural heritage,” the head of the Cuzco Culture Directorate, Daniel Maravi, said in a statement.

The graffiti were presumably sprayed on before dawn Monday and the municipality has been asked for copies of the footage taken by security cameras in order to identify the culprits.

Maravi ordered that, once the judicial procedures have been completed, the graffiti should be removed by specialized personnel of the Physics-Chemistry Laboratory with cleaning substances that will not damage the surfaces or structures of the walls.

Crimes against treasures of cultural heritage are punishable in Peru with between three and eight years in prison, according to the Penal Code.