Police tackled and detained a protester who breached a security barrier near the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday night, as demonstrations against Jeff Bezos’ role in the event spilled into the surrounding streets.
Video taken by Page Six, New York Magazine and others show an individual running across traffic on Fifth Avenue toward the museum entrance before vaulting a steel barricade. Officers quickly swarmed the man and brought him to the ground within seconds.
No one appeared injured in the incident outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the annual fundraising gala was underway. Authorities did not immediately identify the protester or release details about potential charges.
The disruption came amid organized opposition to Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who were named honorary chairs of this year’s gala. Activist messaging critical of Amazon and its labor practices appeared across parts of New York in the days leading up to the event.
One group, identifying itself as Everyone Hates Elon, called for a boycott and circulated claims that it had placed bottles of fake urine around the museum as a symbolic protest referencing longstanding allegations about warehouse working conditions at Amazon. The claims could not be independently verified.
Page Six reported that the man leapt over the first of two steel barriers between him and the party, sprinted through traffic on Fifth and vaulted the second steel barrier. According to Page Six, the protester was stopped roughly 20 feet from attendees including fashion designer Tom Ford and actor Julianne Moore; Ford moved to shield Moore as the individual got close.
The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday. The Met Gala is a frequent target of protesters, including NYPD arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024.
