Tim Martin And Joanna Smith Indicted For National Gallery Art Attack With Declare Emergency

“If the earth were my age, 53, then modern humans would be four days old,” Tim Martin said in a statement. “So, we are latecomers in the miraculous web of life on this astonishingly beautiful planet. And yet in the last few seconds of this time frame, we’ve created a fossil fuel-based industrial revolution, where everyday we wake up to trillions of fossil fuel slaves working on our behalf to make life less hard for us in the Global North countries, at the annual expense of 2-3 trillion dollars extracted from the Global South countries.”

Martin continued:

“This business as usual way of life is also destroying humanity and the rest of the living world at an exponential rate. I believe nobody, no matter what their background or belief, voted for these abhorrent conditions. We ought to be talking about this situation collectively if we are to figure out a livable future for all our children before it’s too late. According to some scientists, it may already be too late, but I’m not turning my back on humanity or the rest of the living world.”

This was Martin’s sole comment in the wake of charges filed in the indictment: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to National Gallery of Art property.

After the protest at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. on April 27th, the charges indicate Martin and his “co-conspirator” Joanna Smith, along with unnamed other members of the Declare Emergency organization, researched and targeted “The Little Dancer,” by Edgar Degas, and alerted media representatives in advance. The charges are predicated on an excess of $100 damages, though the official amount was not provided in the filings. The Department of Justice notice indicates the cost was $2,400 (perhaps the cost of the cleaning crew to wipe up the childrens’ paint from the glass). Charges are thought to result in as much as a five-year prison sentence and a fine of $250,000. Although precedents set with charges in Belgium are shorter, more potential for extreme measures could occur in the United Kingdom, where Phoebe Plummer remained on house arrest until her trial date was set. In the UK, Plummer faces up to 30 years of incarceration across three incidents at 10 years each, and an “unlimited fine.”

The U.S. case is being investigated by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, with assistance from National Gallery of Art Police and U.S. Park Police, prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Martin is currently seeking legal representation.

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