Two daredevil artists were taken into police custody after scaling the spire and antenna of the Empire State Building in New York, unfurling a pro-peace banner and staging a dramatic marriage proposal.
Footage taken from news helicopters circling the skyscraper showed the couple – both wearing black clothes and masks – holding on to the very top of the antenna, which reaches nearly half a kilometre above the ground.
They unfurled a banner that said: “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.”
The couple later climbed down the spire to a platform, where one of them dropped to one knee and appeared to propose. Helicopter cameras then captured them embracing.
They soon unmasked themselves as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, two Russian “roof-toppers” and “extreme artists” who were the subject of a Netflix documentary in 2024.
The couple, who have a combined 1.5 million followers on Instagram, posted photos and video of the proposal online, and encouraged people to tune into the Empire State Building’s live webcam.
The art deco Empire State Building, now the eighth-tallest skyscraper in New York, stands 443.2 metres at the tip of its antenna. The spire and antenna rise an additional 62.2 metres above the roof.
The stunt took place at lunchtime on Wednesday (New York time) and prompted street closures in midtown Manhattan as police attended the scene and ultimately took the two into custody.
Outdoor temperatures during the climb were around 35 degrees, with the northeast US at the start of an intense summer heatwave.
In recent months, Nikolau and Beerkus have posted videos of themselves scaling buildings, bridges and other “super-tall” structures in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Mexico. They also posted a clip of themselves being detained by police in China after scaling a spire.
“We’ve been arrested before,” Nikolau told the Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, which explored numerous occasions on which the couple successfully evaded or were caught by building security.
It was not immediately clear how they were able to access the spire and antenna of the Empire State Building, but the iconic skyscraper hosts regular tours which take visitors to the top deck on the 102nd floor.
The New York City Police Department was contacted for comment.
More than 20 people have died while “roof-topping”, an extreme branch of the phenomenon known as urban exploration, the documentary reported. Participants usually don’t wear harnesses or other safety equipment.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
