On the morning of July 1st, right at the beginning of a major heatwave hitting the states of New York and New Jersey, an unknown, masked couple climbed to the very top of New York City’s iconic Empire State Building, hanging a banner that read: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
The quote is often misattributed to late guitarist Jimi Hendrix, which originally belongs to British politician William Gladstone.
Moments later, as the couple descended to the antenna’s platform, the man got down on one knee and proposed to the woman, the scene captured by several news outlets. At the time, the identities of the climbers, who ascended to the tip of the building without carabiners, harnesses, or any kind of safety gear, were unknown.
The pair has since been confirmed to be Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, two “rooftoppers” and urban artists famous for their daring, adrenaline-fueled photoshoots on Instagram. The pair have since been taken into custody by New York police, as they did not have the permits necessary to climb the building. No injuries were reported.
This isn’t the first time that the pair has run into trouble for climbing a building, as they got some heat from Chinese authorities in late May while climbing a building in an unidentified Chinese city (presumably Hong Kong).
Nikolau, 33, and Beerkus, 32, both Russian and based in NYC, have been together since 2016 and are the subjects of the 2024 Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, which followed their love story and their mission to climb Merdeka 118, the 2,227-foot super-skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The pair met through the “rooftopping” scene, an international community of people who routinely make unsecured ascents of rooftops, antennas, towers, skyscrapers, etc., often illegally or without a permit.
Nikolau and Beerkus aren’t the first people to climb the Empire State Building, however. Previous attempts include 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto in 2023, while promoting his band’s tour. Alain Robert, the climber nicknamed “the French Spider-Man”, famously made the ascent in 1994.
