'AITA for destroying my brother's 'cherished memories' of our grandfather?'

"AITA for destroying my brother's 'cherished memories' of our grandfather?"

So I'm a M(39) my brother is 37. I'm quite the Halloween lover and decorate my front yard every year and I really enjoy being creative and making my own props as well. Today, I was going into the garage to grab my neon green skeleton then I saw the old hand carved merry-go-round horse my grandfather had made years ago that after he passed away my grandma gave to my brother. Even though we both wanted it.

Well my brother had taken it and painted over it and it had sat on our outdoor back porch for almost 2 years. Then when we got our porch redone he just tossed it out on the backyard patio in the elements for a6 months before finally tossing it into the garage where it's been for probably another 4-6 months. Now. It's neglected, it's broken, cracking and was covered in dust and cobwebs and just looked terrible.

I decided to spray paint it all black and was gonna hit it in spots with some glow in the dark green paint I had that would make for a cool effect at night. Then have the skeleton riding it while holding a lantern.

Well my brother saw it painted black and lost his mind. In our front yard he's screaming and cussing at me that I'm destroying his property and the cherished memories of our grandfather he had.

I explain to him that the way he's treated this horse has not been in a cherished way and leaving it in the elements and garage for over 3 years to rot and ruin shows he really didn't care about it all that much and that's he's overreacting for no reason.

He picks up the lantern and proceeds to punt kick it into the front of the house, begins aggressively crying and runs in the house where he continues to cry uncontrollably. My mom tried to remain neutral about it.

Though she admittedly sees no issue with what I did. Thoughts among family and friends is mostly split but I wanted to know what neutral parties thought about it. Am I the ahole? Or is my brother overreacting?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

mavenmim said:

It was his. You said "after he passed away my grandma gave to my brother." So, regardless of how he treated it you should have asked him before painting it. YTA.

Gold_Statistician500 said:

YTA. Enormously. You knew what you were doing because you're jealous your grandmother gave it to your brother. It wasn't yours. (Also I hope the ages are wrong and you're 19 and 17, lmao. if not, big yikes. Grow up).

ShadowsObserver said:

YTA. It wasn't yours. He's allowed to modify it how he wants, and even put it away and not use it if he wants. You are not.

Effective_Traffic346 said:

YTA. It wasn't yours to dictate how he took care of his heirloom. If he wanted to destroy it, it's his right. You should have asked first.

keesouth said:

YTA. It was still his property. You should have asked him before you painted it. If you weren't bitter that he'd gotten it instead of you, you never would have done that.

Disastrous-Nail-640 said:

YTA. How someone release treats their property simply isn’t your business.