Climate groups took to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday June 24 to protest the charges pending against two activists WHO stained paint on the protective envelope of a work by Edgar Degas at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC last April. About 20 members of Extinction Rebellion NYC and Rise and Resist gathered at the museum’s Met’s Gallery 815 and circled Degas’ cast sculpture “The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer,” a 1922 cast edition of the work of art destined for the National Gallery.
Groups use the hashtag #FreeTheDegasTwo raise awareness of what they perceive as excessive punishment for non-violent protest and circulate a petition demanding that Assistant United States District Attorney Cameron A. Tepfer drop the charges.
“The Degas Two” refers to 53-year-old activists Joanna Smith and Tim Martin, both members of the climate awareness organization Declare Emergency, who are facing five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 each for “conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and harming an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art”. The pair reportedly caused $2,400 in damage to the pedestal and protective casing of Degas’ sculpture at the National Gallery.
The Met’s action drew attention to the government crackdown on eco-activists with excessive fines and jail sentences despite the lack of violence and lack of real damage to the works anchoring this trend of awareness protests to the climate emergency. Nodding to Smith and Martin’s protest, the band members raised their black and red painted palms in the air and sealed their mouths with pieces of duct tape labeled with words like ‘Glaciers’ , “Famines”, “Floods” and “Wildlife”. written on.
The Met declined to comment.
In a statement relating to the intervention last Saturday, Extinction Rebellion highlighted other instances of excessive use of government force in response to peaceful protesters, including the The police-sanctioned murder of Venezuelan eco-activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teránknown as Tortuguita, who was shot 57 times by Georgia State Police for protesting a massive law enforcement training camp colloquially known as “Cop City” in the mid-January.
“While our government still possesses vestiges of democracy, it must not allow climate criminals to escape accountability, while simultaneously punishing citizens who dare to challenge their wrongdoings – citizens who are themselves victims of the actions of these climate criminals,” said Georgia B. Smith, interdisciplinary artist and Extinction Rebellion activist.
