Climate protester found guilty of smearing paint on sculpture at DC’s National Gallery of Art - WTOP News (2025)

A man who smeared paint on a sculpture display at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. in April 2023 was found guilty Monday of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to the gallery’s exhibit.

According to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Edward Martin’s office, 55-year-old Timothy Martin, of Raleigh, North Carolina, and 54-year-old Joanna Smith, of Brooklyn, New York, entered the gallery with water bottles filled with paint, which they smeared on the case and base of Edgar Degas’ “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.”

The pair caused more than $4,000 in damage and the exhibit was removed from public display for 10 days for repairs, Martin’s office said in a news release. The sculpture’s materials include human hair, silk and linen ribbon that are more than 100 years old.

Afterward, according to Martin’s office, a group called Declare Emergency claimed credit for defacing the sculpture.

Before the act of protest on April 27, 2023, the group alerted The Washington Post. Two reporters from the newspaper along with other coconspirators filmed the offense, according to prosecutors.

Smith pleaded guilty in December 2023 and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

On the day the sculpture was targeted, Declare Emergency posted the following statement, which has since been removed from its site:

“Today, in nonviolent rebellion, we have temporarily sullied a piece of art to evoke the real children whose suffering is guaranteed if the death-cult fossil fuel companies keep removing new coal, oil, and gas from the ground. As a parent, I cannot abide this future,” Smith wrote. “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.”

Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, condemned the attack in a statement.

“We unequivocally denounce this physical attack on one of our works of art and will continue to share information as it becomes available,” Feldman said. “The safety and security of our staff and visitors and of our collection remain our highest priority.”

Timothy Martin is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 22.

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