Tom Myers

And just like that, the National Academy of Science’s bronze tribute to the father of relativity was unsheathed. Earlier today, the visual artist Olek snuck up on the Albert Einstein Memorial outside the research institution at 2101 Constitution Avenue NW and wrapped it—head-to-toe—in a blend of pink and purple yarn with black and teal accents.

The resulting visual provided a jarring sight to scientists on their way into work. While many commenters and Twitter users who picked up on our gallery noted, Einstein himself was something of a merry prankster in life, and surely would have enjoyed the creative disruption caused by this yarn job on a public memorial to his life and work.

However, not everyone was so enthused. A few hours after the yarn-bombing went down, Olek’s handiwork was sheared off, leaving the Einstein statue appearing in its normal repose.

Olek, who was born in Poland and lives in Brooklyn, is in town this week for the opening of “40 Under 40” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. And while the Einstein-wrapping was not part of her contribution to the exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Renwick’s craft-art programming, it was a hilarious and utterly charming side project. Unfortunately, not everyone was as impressed as us with Olek’s sense of humor.

“Oh no!” she writes in an email. “I am so sad about someone unwrapping it.”

So are we.