US

Activists Vandalize Famous Art Exhibit, Demand Biden Declare A ‘Climate Emergency’

(Screenshot/Twitter/The Washington Post)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Alexa Schwerha Contributor
Font Size:

Activists smeared black and red paint on a famous art display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., on Thursday to demand President Joe Biden declare a “climate emergency,” The Washington Post reported.

The protesters used their hands to streak the paint on the glass barrier covering “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” a sculpture by French artist Edgar Degas, as well as left their handprints and painted a small frowning face and a heart on the base, according to a video shared by the Post. The protesters then sat down on the floor to lecture those around them about climate change. (RELATED: Climate Group Behind Headline-Grabbing Protests Is A ‘Cult,’ Former Member Says)

“We need our leaders to take serious action, to tell us the truth about what’s happening with the climate,” one of the activists said, holding her hands up to show off the red paint.

The other protest, a man, said that while the two are “adults” who “should be at home working,” he can’t do his job without “a government that does their job in looking out for the health and safety of our children,” according to the video. The woman said that they are parents whose “job is to protect our children and future children.”

The pair were handcuffed and escorted from the room by police, the video shows.

“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,” Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “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 are closed until further notice.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the open investigation, Feldman said.

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

Biden signed an executive order on April 21 to establish a new Office of Environmental Justice and directs federal agencies to consider how climate change disproportionately impacts low-income and minority communities. It also expands the Justice40 Initiative that directs 40% of funds from some federal projects to “marginalized” and “underserved” communities that are “overburdened by pollution” and makes environmental justice a “duty” of all executive agencies.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on April 21 that the president has “the most ambitious climate agenda than any other president in history” during a press conference later that day, dodging a question from a reporter on how the executive order would benefit people impacted by a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

“This is just delivering again on how he sees moving forward with dealing with climate change, his promise that he made in 2020 and as he continues to deliver throughout his tenure here,” she had said. “That is going to be our focus. He’s going to continue to do more work to make sure that we deal with an issue that’s incredibly important.”

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel