Jackson Green, Damage to National Gallery of Art Property, Washington District of Columbia 2023

A 27-year-old Utah man has been charged with damaging a valuable National Gallery of Art exhibit in Washington DC.

Jackson Green, of Sandy, Utah, was taken into custody on November 14, 2023, following an indictment charging him with Damage to National Gallery of Art Property.

According to the indictment, Green, a member of the Declare Emergency climate group, entered the National Gallery of Art, carrying red paint, and proceeded to smear the words ‘Honor Them’ in red paint on the wall next to the patinated plaster work of the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial.

The attack was videotaped by supporters of Declare Emergency and released online, causing more than $700 in damages.

The oversized piece, created by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the late 1880s, commemorates one of the first Civil War regiments of African Americans enlisted in the North, which drew recruits from many states and included Frederick Douglass’ own sons.

This is the third member of Declare Emergency charged in relation to attacks on the National Gallery of Art. In April 2023, Joanna Smith, 54, and her alleged co-conspirator, Timothy Martin, 54, of North Carolina, smeared paint on the case and base of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer, Age Fourteen, at times smacking the case with force.

In December, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of causing injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit in the April 27, 2023, defacement of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer, Age Fourteen. U.S. District Court Judge Berman Jackson scheduled sentencing for April 3, 2024.

A trial for Ms. Smith’s co-conspirator Timothy Martin is scheduled for August 26, 2024. The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, specifically the FBI’s Art Crime Team, with assistance from National Gallery of Art Police, and U.S. Park Police.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron A. Tepfer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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