Climate protesters smear paint on sculpture display case at National Gallery of Art
Jenny Goldsberry
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Climate protesters smeared paint on a sculpture’s display case at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Thursday.
Two people approached Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture and smeared black and red paint on its Plexiglas case using their hands in full view of other visitors. One protester wrote the letters “DECL” in homage to “Declare Emergency,” the climate change campaign he is a part of.
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“[The sculpture] is beautiful, and we’re destroying it for climate change,” his female counterpart said as she sat cross-legged in front of the display. “We need our leaders to take serious action, to tell us the truth about what’s happening with the climate.”
Both were pulled up from the floor and detained.
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“Around 11 am today two parents who are terrified about their children’s’ futures (as well as all children) made a statement at the National Gallery in DC,” Declare Emergency tweeted of the protest Thursday. “Climate change will cause famine, floods, droughts and destruction unless we act now.”
“We unequivocally denounce this behavior,” National Gallery of Art Director Kaywin Feldman said in a statement. Feldman also reported that the museum’s expert conservation team will examine the piece for further damage. The entire display has been removed from the public’s view.
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Most recently, the National Gallery of Art hosted first lady Jill Biden and South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee on Wednesday. The two toured the Rothko Gallery while their husbands also met.
Declare Emergency’s website continues to solicit volunteers in the Washington area, with the warning that its future campaigns have the “possibility that it could lead to … arrest.”