Two environmental activists who tried to damage Degas’ most famous sculpture at a major Washington museum were arrested on Friday and charged, the Justice Department announced, as quoted by AFP.

Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith, 53, are accused of smearing paint on the plinth and Plexiglas cage protecting “La Petite Danseuse de quartoze ans” on display at the National Gallery of Art on April 27.

On Friday morning, they surrendered to the police and were taken into custody. They will be charged with “defying the United States” and “destroying” the museum, crimes punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to a press release, they cost the museum $2,400, which had to remove the French sculptor’s work from the exhibit for ten days.

“We need our leaders to take serious action to tell the truth about what’s happening to the climate,” Ms Smith said in the video, sitting at the foot of a small statue, her hands covered in red paint.

This “nonviolent uprising” was declared by the group Declare Emergency, which called on US President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.

In autumn 2022, especially in Europe, environmental activists took action against artworks to warn the public about climate change.

They glued hands to a Goya painting in Madrid, sprinkled Van Gogh’s Sunflower with tomato soup in London, and covered Claude Monet’s masterpiece in Potsdam, near Berlin, with mashed potatoes.