Gardner Museum closed early after learning activists planned to fill empty frames of stolen paintings with climate messages

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum canceled its evening hours yesterday "due to a planned protest by climate activists that would put our community and collections at risk," the museum's director said in e-mail to museum supporters.

Museum director Peggy Fogelman wrote this is the second time the museum has closed early in response to such a proposed event by the group, which she did not name.

The group sought to insert their own artworks into the empty frames in the Dutch Room as one element of their protest. These frames are not only important and fragile historic objects in their own right, but they memorialize the tragic 1990 theft that deprived our public of the opportunity to enjoy unique masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and others. It is heartbreaking to associate the painful reminder of this loss with any scenario that would jeopardize the frames themselves or the experience of our staff and visitors.

Our founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner, made horticulture a central part of the museum experience, and she valued conversation and the free exchange of ideas. While we may support constructive efforts to address and elucidate the climate crisis–as do many of the artists featured in our current exhibition, Presence of Plants in Contemporary Art–public discourse entails respectful dialogue in which participants engage by choice. We cannot condone tactics that impose risk and confrontation on audiences and objects.

People who had tickets for the evening hours will be able to get a voucher to reschedule their visits, she added.