No 'supreme leader' banner hung at Brooklyn Museum protest | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Protestors displayed Iranian 'supreme leader' banner at Brooklyn Museum

A June 22 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a group of people applauding as a large banner is unraveled down the front of a building.

"Supreme Leader Thanks you American boys and girls!" reads the red and green banner, which also features an illustration of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Part of the post's caption says, "Controversial Banner of Iranian Supreme Leader Displayed at Brooklyn Museum."

The post garnered more than 700 likes in three days. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Threads and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: Altered

The banner was digitally added to the video of the protest. Footage from the day shows that a "Free Palestine" banner was the only one hung from the roof of the museum.

'Supreme leader' banner digitally fabricated

New York City police took 34 people into custody following a pro-Palestinian protest at the Brooklyn Museum on May 31, according to the Associated Press. Several were charged with crimes ranging from trespassing to assault. Protestors tried to take over the building and hung a "Free Palestine" banner off the roof before police started making arrests, AP reported.

The "supreme leader" banner shown in the Instagram video isn't real, however.

Photos and videos captured by CBS News, AP and other news outlets during the protest show that the only banner hung from the building's roof read, "Free Palestine: Divest From Genocide." Footage shared on X by one of the protest's organizers, Within Our Lifetime, shows the same thing.

There are no credible reports of any pro-Iranian banners being hung during the demonstration.

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James O'Brien, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkley, told USA TODAY the Instagram video appeared to be altered using "old-school cloth simulation."

"It looks like the 'Supreme Leader' banner was simulated using a tool like Maya or Blender, or some other cloth simulation, and the image of the 'Supreme Leader' and text was texture-mapped onto it," O'Brien said in an email. "The supposed cloth bounces and stretches in a way that is very much wrong for real cloth, but typical of simple mass-spring cloth simulations."

He pointed out that the two top corners of the banner appear to be high-up and horizontal from the building but without anything holding them in place, while the banner moves in a way that makes the material appear much heavier than the light fabric banners are typically constructed by.

"If you compare the 'Supreme Leader' banner to the black 'Free Palestine' banner then you will notice that the – real – black banner is affected by wind and blown to the side and back against the building," he said. "Meanwhile, the 'Supreme Leader' banner moves as if there were no wind and it were a still day."

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No 'supreme leader' banner hung at Brooklyn Museum | Fact check

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