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Two climate protestors have been charged after they smeared paint onto a glass case holding a Degas masterpiece in Washington DC.
Tim Martin and Joanna Smith, both 53, were taken into custody on Friday after being charged on counts of conspiracy to commit an offense and causing damage to an art exhibit.
According to an indictment, both Martin and Smith smeared paint on the case and the base of Degas’ Little Dancer, Age Fourteen, last month at the National Gallery of Art.
The Justice Department said the two caused approximately $2,400 in damage and the exhibit had to be removed from public display for ten days while it was repaired.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine that could reach $250,000.
Tim Martin and Joanna Smith had been taken into custody on Friday after charged on counts of conspiracy to commit an offense and causing damage to an art exhibit
The Justice Department said the two caused approximately $2,400 in damage and the exhibit had to be removed from public display for ten days while it was repaired
The indictment further alleges that the two agreed, along with other uncharged co-conspirators, to enter the gallery and injure the exhibit.
Martin and Smith are accused of throwing paint from water bottles on the exhibit and then smearing it onto the case and base of the artwork.
Video of the incident was captured and widely shared on social media and with news organizations.
In it, Martin can be heard telling one onlooker ‘I’m sorry’ as he slaps black paint into the glass case surrounding the statue.
The two throw black and red paint around the base and glass and continue to vandalize the artwork as a group of onlookers watch on.
They then sit in front of the artwork with their hands held out before they are pulled away by police officers.
Earlier this week, Martin released a video of himself via the activist group Declare Emergency defending his actions.
In a video, he said: ‘The idea is that we wake people up with a shock, and we do it in a way that that engages and invites their emotional centers.
Tim Martin, pictured, said in a video that he wanted to wake people up with a shock to the climate crisis
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His co-conspirator, Joanna Smith, pictured here, travelled from her home in New York to DC to partake in the protest
Martin said he smeared paint on the statue’s case, which damaged the artwork, to send a message about planet-heating gases
‘We want to activate people’s emotions so that they can stop ignoring and turning and looking the other way, because we cannot afford to look the other way anymore.’
The activist group Declare Emergency recruits volunteers who say they’re willing to get arrested, and stages regular protests to pressure the Biden Administration to radically restrict fossil fuel use.
A spokeswoman told DailyMail.com of the harm to an ‘inherently fragile figure’ made of wood, clay, rope, paintbrushes, padding, lead, and wire, which is coated in a thin skin of beeswax.
‘Damage is exacerbated by any movement, whether by vibration created when the plexiglass cover is hit or when the sculpture is physically moved to another location,’ said the spokeswoman.
‘The attack on April 27 brought about both conditions.’
The climate protesters were arrested after smearing paint on the case that houses Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington
Gallery 3 in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC was closed after the protest, and Little Dancer was not back on display until May 8
Dozens of staff, including, carpenters, registrars, art handlers, conservators, scientists, and imaging specialists, were involved in repairs and clearing up — at considerable cost to the taxpayer-funded gallery.
Gallery 3 was closed for the rest of the day as police assessed the scene, and the statue was not back on public view until May 8. Its climate-controlled protective case needed extensive repairs.
‘Even when cracks do not appear changed to the naked eye, microscopic and cumulative damage is always a concern,’ said the spokeswoman.
Going forward, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen will require regular, extensive monitoring to observe any change in the cracks or other elements of her composition.’
Declare Emergency released a video of the two demonstrators smearing the paint, named them and said in a statement they had been arrested.
Climate activists have increasingly turned to vandalizing artworks to draw attention to emissions of planet-heating gases — but most of these antics have targeted European galleries.
Campaigners last year splashed soup onto a Vincent van Gogh painting in Rome and another in London’s National Gallery.
In Australia, activists graffitied and glued themselves to Andy Warhol art, while in The Hague, others glued themselves to Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring painting.
