Raleigh resident arrested for defacing priceless art case during demonstration

A Raleigh resident, Tim Martin, was one of the climate activists who smeared paint on an art case at the National Gallery of Art Thursday morning.

Martin was there as a supporter of the Declare Emergency organization, which aims to address the ‘climate emergency’.

“We need to disrupt the public in order to wake people up,” Martin said.

The group targeted the ‘Little Dancer’ sculpture by Edgar Degas, saying it symbolized their fears for future generations. He said they used children’s paint only on the casing of the art display.

“In particular, we chose ‘The Little Dancer’ by Degas as the child that represents all the children of the world. We wanted to draw attention using her sculpture as a strong symbolic message to get other parents talking about how we’re going to protect the future health and safety of our children in a world where our government is not taking appropriate action,” Martin explained.

However, North Carolina State atmospheric professor Walter Robinson said he does not think the demonstration will be as effective as they think.

“These people are frustrated, and I share their frustration, but I don’t think the average person seeing that demonstration on evening news is going to think, ‘Oh yeah, climate change, we have to take action right away’ if they didn’t already think that,” he said.

In a statement released Thursday, the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington said:

“Today, a priceless work of art in our collection, Degas’s original wax Little Dancer, was attacked by protestors with swaths of red and black paint. After attacking the Degas sculpture, they made statements about climate issues."

The work was displayed in a plexiglass case and has been taken off view so that our expert conservation team can assess potential damage to it. Gallery 3, where Little Dancer was on display, and several connecting galleries on the ground floor of the West Building were closed for the remainder of the day. As of Friday, April 28, gallery 3 has reopened.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation, which is still active.

We unequivocally denounce this physical attack on one of our works of art and will continue to share information as it becomes available.

The safety and security of our staff and visitors and of our collection remain our highest priority.”

By the end of 2021, NOAA reported that the AGGI was 1.49, meaning the direct warming influence of human-produced greenhouse gases had risen 49 percent above the 1990 baseline.

“Emissions have not been going down. They are continuing to rise. Emissions are going up and we have to make this drastic right turn,” Robinson said.

He said he believes the apparent changes in climate patterns are catching people’s attention.

“What really has attracted people’s attention are these major weather and climate disasters. The risk of such things can be attributed to climate change, he said. “We’re seeing more and more of these unprecedented events.”

The FBI is now investigating the incident. Martin said he is charged with defacing public property and has a court date set for May 25.