The homes of Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak and several board members were targeted by vandals on Tuesday night, according to local elected officials who condemned the attacks.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander posted images online showing what appeared to be red paint on the front of one house. A banner hanging between two columns outside the property read: “ANNE PASTERNAK BROOKLYN MUSEUM WHITE-SUPREMACIST ZIONIST,” one of the pictures shows.
“Last night vandals defaced the homes of the Jewish director & several Jewish board members of the @brooklynmuseum,” Lander captioned the images on X. “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.”
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After this article was published, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Museum contacted The Daily Beast saying the board members whose homes were targeted are not Jewish. Only Pasternak is Jewish, the museum confirmed.
“We are deeply troubled by these horrible acts of vandalism targeting museum leadership,” Brooklyn Museum said in a statement. “For two centuries, the Brooklyn Museum has worked to foster mutual understanding through art and culture, and we have always supported peaceful protest and open, respectful dialogue. Violence, vandalism, and intimidation have no place in that discourse.”
It’s not clear how many homes were targeted, but the New York Police Department is investigating multiple incidents involving paint being thrown or sprayed onto homes, according to WNBC-TV.
City Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) similarly condemned the “disgusting,” “horrible,” and “despicable” vandalism that he said had occurred in “Brooklyn Heights & other locations” affiliated with the museum. “There is video & PD is investigating,” he added.
“This is not peaceful protest or free speech,” Mayor Eric Adams wrote in a post, which also included images of the defacement. “This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism.” Adams added that such actions “will never be tolerated in New York City” and said he was “sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of @brooklynmuseum’s 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,” Adams wrote. “The NYPD is investigating and will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”
It’s not clear who was responsible for the vandalism. It comes after pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police during a march on the Brooklyn Museum last month, with 34 demonstrators detained in the melee. One group calling for “sustained action” against the museum accused it of “complicity” in “the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
More protesters were arrested on Monday night when crowds of activists gathered outside a memorial exhibition in Lower Manhattan commemorating the hundreds of people killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Signs celebrating the massacre were seen at the demonstration, according to a report, and some were filmed chanting: “Long live the intifada.”
One demonstrator also warned “Zionists” on a New York City subway car to raise their hands and warned them to take their “chance to get out” on Monday, according to the New York Post.
Editor’s note: After this story was published, the Brooklyn Museum clarified that while Pasternak is Jewish, the other board members who were targeted are not Jewish.
