NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The home of the Brooklyn Museum's director, who is Jewish, as well as several board members of the 200-year old institution, were vandalized and smeared with red paint on Tuesday night.
Mayor Eric Adams responded to the incident on X (formerly Twitter) and posted four photos. One of the photos showed a large white banner displayed in front of a residence, accusing Anne Pasternak, the museum director, and the Brooklyn Museum of being "white-supremacist Zionists" and "funding genocide."
The banner, stretched between two columns, was marked with red handprints and paint smears. Red paint can be seen splattered across the glass doors and brick facade.
“This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it's overt, unacceptable antisemitism,” Adams shared on X. “These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason. I'm sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of Brooklyn Museum board who woke up to hatred like this. I spoke to Anne this morning and committed that this hate will not stand in our city. The NYPD is investigating and will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul also took to X and stated that, “This is an abhorrent act of antisemitism and it has no place in New York or anywhere else. We stand with the Jewish community in the face of hate and will continue to fight antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head.”
On the walls and windows, there were also red inverted triangles painted, e, a symbol used by Hamas in the recent conflict in Gaza as a way to identify Israeli military targets, according to the Anti-Defamation League. “Though it can be used innocuously in general pro-Palestine social media posts, the inverted red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence in many popular anti-Zionist memes and political cartoons,” the Anti-Defamation League website states.
The Brooklyn Museum issued a statement saying, "We are deeply troubled by these horrible acts. A police report was filed."
Hundreds of protesters marched on the Brooklyn Museum late last month, setting up tents in the lobby and unfurling a “Free Palestine” banner from the building’s roof before police moved in to make dozens of arrests.
Within Our Lifetime and other organizers of that protest have said the museum is “deeply invested in and complicit” in the war through its leadership, trustees, corporate sponsors and donors.
But City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was among the New York politicians to speak out against the protests, said the Brooklyn Museum has done more to grapple with questions of “power, colonialism, racism & the role of art” than many other museums.
“The cowards who did this are way over the line into antisemitism, harming the cause they claim to care about, and making everyone less safe,” he wrote on X.
It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the vandalism.
An investigation is ongoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.