Daredevils Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climbed the Empire State Building Wednesday and unfurled a banner calling for peace and love.
Nikolau, 33, posted live footage of herself wandering around the skyscraper’s antenna while looking down at the crowds gathered 1,450-feet below. She and her 32-year-old fiance are no strangers to dangerous stunts.
Daredevil couple climb spire atop Empire State Building in apparent marriage proposal
The Russian couple starred in the 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” which featured the pair talking about their relationship before scaling the 118-story Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The pair has also summited China’s Goldin Finance 117 skyscraper, which Nikolau and Beerkus ascended a decade ago at the start of their courtship.
“When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace,” the banner they displayed from the top of the Empire State Building around noon.
The climbers were arrested following their latest achievement, but a different kind of cuffing also took place: Nikolau showed off an diamond engagement ring on Instagram Wednesday.
The pair also posted photos of Beerkus dropping to one knee and popping the question from atop Manhattan’s most iconic building.
It’s unclear how and where they’ll spend their honeymoon.
Nikolau and Beerkus started climbing together in 2016. They live in New York City.
“We have this agreement between ourselves that whenever we do something together and one of us is losing motivation, the other one has to push him forward,” Nikolau told NBC’s “Today” in a 2024 interview.
When he’s not climbing buildings, Beerkus is pursuing a career in music. He regarded climbing rooftops as a personal conquest before teaming up with Nikolau. He now sees climbing as an “art form.”
Earlier this year he posted Instagram video showing him DJing from on top of a windmill.
Nikolau is a painter with a background in dance and acrobatics. She said she comes from a family of circus performers.
“Seeing that passion, that freedom was magical,” she told “Today.”
Nikolau frequently posts photos from her adventures with Beerkus online.
“Our climbs aren’t about spectacle — they’re a ritual,” she wrote after one New York City climb last year. “A performance where fear becomes part of the art. We don’t go up for the view — we go up for freedom.”
She conceded in that post that their climbs aren’t legal.
“While others follow the rules, we move above the system — literally,” she added. “Because it’s up there, at the height, where we remember who we truly are.”
