Climate activists indicted for paint protest at National Gallery of Art

Two climate activists have surrendered to authorities one month after smearing paint on a glass case protecting "Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen," a famous, 19th-century Edgar Degas sculpture at the National Gallery of Art.

A federal court indicted Timothy Martin of North Carolina, and Joanna Smith of New York, both 53, on charges of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit, the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. said in a statement Friday.

Smith and Martin acted on behalf of Declare Emergency, a protest group that has increased its national profile over the past year by blocking local roadways to demand action from government leaders and draw attention to the climate crisis. Martin was part of the 13-member group that blocked Fourth of July traffic on the Capital Beltway last summer — according to an interview he provided to Forbes — a stunt the group repeated in October.

On the quiet morning of April 27, Smith and Martin arrived at the Degas exhibit with water bottles filled with red and black paint, knelt at the base of the sculpture, and painted what appeared to be a tree on fire, as well as a house and a cloud, according to a Washington Post reporter who had been told about the protest in advance. (Two Post reporters were briefly apprehended on the scene before their counsel intervened and they were released.)

From the scene, where a student group on a field trip observed the protest, Smith told the small crowd that gathered around them that she was a parent and could not abide the future we're headed toward.

"This little dancer is protected in her climate controlled box, but people, animals, and ecosystems currently struggling and dying in extreme weather events are not," Smith said. "I have family members sickened by particulate matter in the toxic air."

Through peaceful, civil disobedience, Declare Emergency said in a statement it is standing up to decisions by leaders that are "antithetical to life, health, and security." They join the ranks of impassioned protestors who have glued themselves to and thrown mashed potatoes, Heinz tomato soup, and custard pies at Monets, van Goghs, and Picassos at cultural institutions around the globe.

Art gallery directors — and the Justice Department — haven't considered the protests to be so "peaceful."

Smith and Martin face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for actions the court says resulted in roughly $2,400 worth of damage. The National Gallery says that despite the protestors acting on the casing and not the sculpture itself, the artwork did receive damage. The mostly beeswax piece was removed from the gallery and put back on view on May 8. Such movement can cause "microscopic and cumulative damage" to the piece — even the smacks to the plexiglass can cause vibrations that damage the work, per the National Gallery.

Martin says it's all worth it. He told Forbes earlier this month that he'd felt helpless in his attempts to get his small community back home in Raleigh, North Carolina, to take steps against climate change. An architect by trade and father of two sons, he says when he heard of Declare Emergency, he knew he must take more drastic actions.

"My boys understand what I'm doing this for, but they certainly don't want me to get hurt or go to jail," Martin said. "But our Declare Emergency campaign is about making sacrifices, because this is how serious the problem is. We need more bodies on the line. We demonstrate that we need people's attention this crisis."

The case is being investigated by the FBI's Art Crime Team with help from the National Gallery of Art Police and U.S. Park Police.