NEW YORK \u2014 Was it a protest, a proposal, or both? That is the question now hanging over a high-rise stunt at the Empire State Building after two climbers allegedly scaled the building\u2019s antenna spire, displayed a peace banner, appeared to get engaged, and were taken into NYPD custody.<\/p>\n
Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, also known as Ivan Beerkus, allegedly climbed the Empire State Building\u2019s antenna spire on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, before police brought them down.<\/p>\n
The banner read: \u201cWhen the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
On its face, the stunt carried the message of a protest. In the footage and reported court details, it also looked like a marriage proposal staged nearly 1,500 feet above Manhattan.<\/p>\n
That split identity is now part of the story.<\/p>\n
The public saw a peace message and a romantic spectacle. Police saw two people allegedly inside a restricted section of one of New York City\u2019s most recognizable landmarks. Prosecutors now have a criminal case. Building officials have a security question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEWSXR SPECIAL REPORT Protest Or Proposal? Empire State Building Peace-Banner Stunt Ends In Arrests And Security Questions NEW YORK \u2014 Was it a protest, a proposal, or both? That is the question now hanging over a high-rise stunt at the Empire State Building after two climbers allegedly scaled the building\u2019s antenna spire, displayed a peace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,68],"tags":[70,69,74,71,72,73],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-story","category-special-report","tag-empire-state-building-climbers","tag-empire-state-building-stunt","tag-newsxr-special-report","tag-nyc-security-breach","tag-peace-banner-protest","tag-proposal-stunt-arrest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companyxr.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}