Trump junk Smithsonian Museum is collecting 'MAGA' signs from the US Capitol attack

Items left behind by the rioters who stormed the US Capitol last week are to be preserved as historical artifacts.

Flags, signs, ‘MAGA’ hats and other bits and pieces left lying around the Capitol after supporters gained access to the building will be gathered up as potential museum pieces for the future.

A spokesperson for the House Administration Committee said the artefacts, including pro-insurrection stickers and flags as well as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s damaged nameplate, are being collected for preservation as part of an archive on Wednesday’s events.

The spokesperson also said that seven pieces of historically significant art, including a marble statue of Thomas Jefferson and portraits of James Madison and John Quincy Adams, were covered in “corrosive gas agent residue” and were being sent to the Smithsonian for assessment and restoration.

“On the West Front, the teams identified graffiti on the building near the Inaugural Stands and two broken Olmsted light fixtures,” said a spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol in an email.

“Statues, murals, historic benches and original shutters all suffered varying degrees of damage – primarily from pepper spray accretions and residue from tear gas and fire extinguishers – that will require cleaning and conservation.”

Frank Blazich, a curator from the National Museum of American History, also collected signs and other items left at the scene of the chaos, including a sign that read, 'Off with their heads: Stop the steal.'

Jane Campbell, president of the US Capitol Historical Society, a non-profit chartered by Congress to inspire “informed patriotism,” said that that while she was angered by Wednesday’s events, she hopes the preservation of items from the day will force people to remember what took place.

“As a historian I want everything preserved,” Campbell said. “I think the people who did the attack on the Capitol are insurrectionist, immoral and bad news all the way around ... but if they left stuff behind, it should be preserved and studied later. We have to look at, ‘What did we learn?’ ”

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Online Editors