Timothy Martin, an activist for the climate of the American group Declare Emergency, was found guilty on Tuesday April 8, 2025 of a conspiracy aimed at committing a crime against the United States. He had played a role in the degradation of a Degas sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Ministry of Justice announced.
“This verdict sends a strong message to the thousands of people who come to Washington each year to demonstrate and be heard” said the Columbia District Prosecutor Edward R. Martin. “Freedom of expression is a constitutional right. But when you act, for example by destroying goods such as invaluable works of art, you cross a line that no one in this city will tolerate ”.
In April 2023, Timothy Martin and his co -accused Johanna Smith, who pleaded guilty in December 2023, had spread out children’s paint on glass protection and the base of the famous sculpture The fourteen year old dancer (1881) by Edgar Degas.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Timothy Martin has caused damage of more than $ 4,000 (around 3,700 euros). Timothy Martin, however, insisted that he had coated painting on the protective window and not on the work: “Life on Earth is extinction and they want to make it a story of painting on a window” he told the media USA Today. “It seems crazy, unless you don’t know how serious things are … When the house burns, you have to enter and wake up people to say:” Go out, save yourself “”.
The sentence of Timothy Martin will be known on August 22, 2025. His co -accused Johanna Smith was sentenced to 60 days in prison and forced to pay a fine of $ 3,000 (around 2,800 euros) as well as $ 4,062 (around 3,700 euros) in compensation.
This is the latest trial against the Declare Emergency group, which expressed its solidarity with Timothy Martin: “This action was a non -violent protest aimed at drawing attention to the growing climate emergency and to urge the US government to take immediate and concrete measures to remedy it”. Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has been trying to relaunch the coal industry and has encouraged logging in national forests.
At the same time, the militant group for the climate of the United Kingdom Just Stop Oil recently announced that it would cease its shocking actions by the end of April 2025. The activists of this group had notably made known for having thrown soup on paintings from Van Gogh to the National Gallery of London in 2022, asking visitors: “Is art more precious than life? What food? »» Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to 2 years in prison and Anna Holland, 22, to 20 months in prison. The organization does not disengage, however and said that its resistance will continue in the courts, where procedures are underway against its activists.
