When Angela Nikolau and Vanya Beerkus decided to propose to each other, they didn’t do it over dinner or at a baseball game. They climbed 1,454 feet to the tippy-top of the Empire State Building’s antenna spire and did it there, dangling above midtown Manhattan with nothing but sky and a lot of nerve.
On Wednesday, July 1, the Russian daredevil artists—dressed in sleek black sleeveless outfits and documenting everything for their Instagram followers—hung onto the landmark’s antenna near the glowing red light at its pinnacle. They unfurled a black banner with a message in white letters that read: “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” It’s the kind of stunt that makes you hold your breath, laugh, and wonder how anyone thought this was a good idea all at once.
How they got up there remains a mystery. The Empire State Building has had serious security since the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, so their method was either masterfully clever or hilariously audacious. Around 12:30 p.m., they descended slightly to a lower platform in the antenna structure, and that’s when Beerkus dropped to one knee and proposed. Nikolau, wearing her signature Catwoman-style headgear, accepted—and then did what any modern couple would do: she admired her ring and photographed it for Instagram. The couple were the subject of a 2024 documentary called Skywalkers: A Love Story, so if nothing else, their filmmaker has bonus footage now.
The New York Police Department wasn’t amused. Streets around the building were shut down, officers were stationed at observation decks, and the couple was taken into custody without incident. Charges are pending. Still, there’s something undeniably romantic about a proposal that says this much about who you are as a couple: bold, committed to a message bigger than yourselves, and willing to break rules to prove a point. Not everyone needs a ring box and rose petals. Some of us apparently just need an antenna, a peace manifesto, and the kind of love that’ll climb the most iconic building in America just to shout about it.
The timing couldn’t be more New York. The city’s bracing for the expected wedding of Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce, plus July 4 crowds celebrating 250 years of the Declaration of Independence. Angela and Vanya just beat them all to the headline.
