A climate activist was sentenced to 18 months in prison for smearing paint on the case of a 19th-century Degas sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
In one of the most high-profile acts of eco-activism at museums in the United States and Europe in recent years, Tim Martin and a fellow activist targeted the artwork, “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” in 2023 as part of an effort to draw attention to climate change.
As onlookers gathered around them, the pair smeared black and red paint onto the glass case surrounding the artwork and finger-painted symbols of the natural world, such as pine trees, on its plinth.
At a trial in April in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a jury found Mr. Martin, 56, guilty of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit.
Last week, Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down her sentence, which will amount to about a year of prison time taking into account the months Mr. Martin has spent in jail since the trial concluded.
The judge also ordered him and the other activist, Joanna Smith, to pay more than $4,000 — the cost to repair the sculpture’s case and its base. Ms. Smith took a plea deal in 2023 and received a sentence of 60 days in prison.
A lawyer for Mr. Martin, Elizabeth Mullin, declined to comment. In court papers, the defense has said Mr. Martin is now “committed to finding other, lawful ways to express his well-founded concern” about climate change.
The sentence is among a series of stringent punishments for climate protesters who in recent years have used famous artworks at museums to elevate their message. After two activists threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London, a judge sentenced one of the defendants to two years in jail, saying he wanted to deter similar stunts. The other activist received 20 months.
In other cases, protesters have received more lenient sentences. In 2023, Viennese prosecutors dropped their case against protesters who had doused a 1915 Klimt painting at the Leopold Museum in black liquid after the demonstrators agreed to pay about $2,200 in damages for the cost of art handling, cleanup and repairing of the gallery wall.
The nonprofit research and advocacy group Climate Rights International called the sentencing of Mr. Martin a “severe punishment” that underscored a “growing threat to free expression and activism.”
Mr. Martin, who had a career as an architect, and Ms. Smith were part of an organization called Declare Emergency, which describes itself as committed to using “nonviolent civil resistance techniques” to demand government action on climate change.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which prosecuted the case, had asked the court for a prison sentence of five years, the maximum for the counts on which Mr. Martin was convicted. The lead prosecutor wrote in court papers that Mr. Martin’s actions had caused “real harm,” including the cost of repairs, removal of the sculpture from public display for 10 days and the need for new security measures at the museum.
Mr. Martin’s conviction “sends a clear message,” the office said in a statement after the sentencing, adding, “We will relentlessly protect our nation’s treasures, including the priceless works of art housed in the National Gallery here in Washington, D.C.”
Mr. Martin’s lawyer had asked for a more lenient sentence that would not require him to be incarcerated longer than he already has been, arguing that he had not aimed to destroy the artwork.
“Mr. Martin is an intelligent, sensitive, gentle man who cares deeply about his family and his community,” his lawyer wrote. “This time in jail — away from his children — has caused him to understand that he can never again engage in the conduct that led him before this court.”
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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