Vandals scrawled, “F–k Columbus” on the base of the monument of the explorer in Columbus Circle — weeks after the NYPD’s controversial barriers around it were removed, law-enforcement sources said Sunday. The spray-painted obscenity was discovered by police about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, fewer than three weeks after cops had taken down the protective barricade they erected around the Manhattan statue last summer, sources said.

The NYPD had put metal barriers around the 75-foot Midtown monument and surrounding parkland after June’s anti-cop protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white Minnesota officer. At the time, police sources identified the statue as a “known target” as protesters toppled other controversial monuments across the country and world.