Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Just after 5 p.m. on Wednesday a 40-foot banner fluttered into view inside the central rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, where visitors were looking at works by a collection of painters and sculptors called the Zero Group, who had aimed to redefine art after World War II.
The banner, which read “Stop Labor Abuse” and “Countdown to Guggenheim Abu Dhabi,” was held by two members of the protest group Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction, which has been involved in a series of unsanctioned displays inside the museum meant to denounce labor conditions on Saadiyat Island, a luxury enclave in Abu Dhabi, where a branch of the Guggenheim is planned.
Much of the work on Saadiyat Island, which is also home to a branch of the Louvre and a New York University campus, is done by foreign migrants. Critics say workers are forced to work long hours, are housed in deplorable conditions and have been subject to police raids and beatings if they object.
Museum visitors on Wednesday gazed quizzically at the banner, occasionally wondering aloud what it meant; after about five minutes security guards yanked it from the protesters, who then departed without incident.
The episode was the beginning of the group’s “Countdown” campaign, which members said would be aimed at donors to the Guggenheim rather than its managers. A second demonstration is scheduled for Thursday evening, when donors will be gathering at the museum for a dinner.
A previous campaign, called “52 Weeks” and intended to sway the museum’s trustees, ended in October. That campaign, which lasted a year, produced original artworks commenting on labor conditions in Abu Dhabi, and included a few brief occupations of the museum’s rotunda.
People connected to Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction and a related group, Gulf Labor, have asked museum officials to guarantee that workers involved with the Guggenheim project will not be mistreated. Museum officials have said that they wanted to strengthen labor protections and were concerned about the welfare of workers.
Some protesters met in the spring with museum officials, including the Guggenheim’s director, Richard Armstrong, said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University who has worked with Gulf Labor. During that meeting, Mr. Ross said, museum officials told the protesters that they would address the concerns over the treatment of workers in Abu Dhabi.
“We’ve heard nothing since,” Mr. Ross said. “This is what we do when we don’t get a response; we step up pressure.”
The Guggenheim did not comment.