Joanna Smith Sentenced to Two Months in Prison for Museum Vandalism as Part of “Declare Emergency” Protest

The climate activist Joanna Smith, aged 54 and hailing from Brooklyn, New York, has been sentenced to two months behind bars for defacing an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., as part of a wider protest by the group “Declare Emergency.” Judge Amy Berman Jackson also ordered that Smith serve 24 months on supervised release and carry out 150 hours of community service, with a minimum of ten of these focusing on graffiti cleaning initiatives. As a punishment for her criminal action, she has been barred from entering the nation’s capital or any museums and monuments in Washington D.C., for two years, while also being required to make compensation equal to damages resulting directly as consequence of the exhibit disfiguration process; an estimated $4,000 worth of repair work was needed following her vandalism spree on April 27th last year. Smith and other co-conspirators brought paint in plastic water bottles into D.C., with footage obtained by prosecutors revealing that they filmed themselves applying the paint to both the sculpture’s base and its see-through case, occasionally using force as well; The Washington Post was informed of their plans beforehand, resulting in two reporters being dispatched for picture-taking purposes while investigations into this act have been handled jointly by federal FBI teams alongside D.C.’S Art Crime Squad with aid from the National Gallery of Art Police and U.S Park Police.