Climate activist gets 60 days in prison for causing $4,000 in damage to 19th Century sculpture

A federal judge has sentence for a climate activist to 60 days in prison for defacing a 19th Century sculpture last year at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.

Joanna Smith, 54, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington for defacing “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” a wax sculpture created by Edgar Degas that was completed in 1881.

In addition to her prison time, the judge ordered Smith to serve two years of supervised release, 150 hours of community service, and she must pay for the damage to the exhibit.

Prosecutors say Smith and co-conspirators traveled to Washington, on April 27, 2023, the day of the incident and that she and an accomplice smuggled paint through security by hiding it inside water bottles.

“We need our leaders to take serious action, to tell us the truth about what is happening with the climate,” Smith said in a video taken of the incident.

Tim Martin, who is seen with Smith in the video, discussed his role in Forbes a couple weeks later.

Smith pleaded guilty in December to one count of causing injury to the exhibit.

Martin is due to go on trial in August on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime against the U.S. and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit, according to The Art Newspaper.