“Using only oil paint, the artist Richard J. Haas created an entire cast-iron facade in SoHo more than 30 years ago. Ever since, his five-story trompe l’oeil mural at 114 Prince Street, near Greene Street, has beguiled so many people that it might be thought of as New York’s first big two-dimensional architectural landmark. … Today, however, … Mr. Haas’s mural stands defaced, its entire second-story base covered by tags.”