NEW YORK—Yoshitomo Nara, the Japanese artist renowned for his cartoon drawings of children and animals, has been cleared of graffiti and criminal mischief charges in New York. He had been arrested for drawing a smiley face on the on the wall of a subway platform in Manhattan’s East Village with a marker back in February, just before the opening of his show at the Marianne Boesky Gallery. After six months of a spotless criminal record, the charges have been dropped. 

Nara, who is 49 and lives in Japan, described the arrest as “a nice experience in my life,” noting the variety of people he was able encounter on his night in jail. Those looking for his drawing will be disappointed, as maintenance workers for the Metropolitan Transit Authority cleaned the wall immediately after the incident. As the New York Post points out, that may have been a mistake: the piece could possibly have sold for as much as $10,000. 

Read more at New York Post.