Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from Democracy Defenders and Mr. Lewis.

Photos captured this week show piano movers rolling massive Steinway grand pianos through the red-carpeted halls of the Kennedy Center. British music journalist Norman Lebrecht published the images on the classical music news site Slipped Disc.

When President Donald Trump's handpicked board took over the Kennedy Center last year, the once-successful living monument to former President John F. Kennedy was profitable. After Trump decided to add his name to the Kennedy building, acts and shows pulled out of their performances, unwilling to let it turn into his theater.

Lewis Piano Movers was tasked with moving the Steinway grand pianos, as shown in photos. The pianos are valued at about $187,000 to $246,900, or more if they are brand new. Steinway grands are a mainstay of major concert halls, where they serve as the house instruments for touring soloists and orchestral programming. Van Lewis, who took the photos, wrote in a Facebook post: "Bittersweet day, I love moving Pianos, BUT taking all the Steinways out of the Kennedy Center is sad….."

The Kennedy Center has held used Steinway piano sales in the past, so AlterNet reached out to Steinway in Washington, D.C. to ask whether the sale was happening again this year. Jenny returned the call and said it would not host the sale because the Kennedy Center had closed. She said the shop owner intends to retire and close, so the shop is selling all of its pianos at a heavy discount. With the Kennedy Center closed, the shop is also moving all the Steinways to offer them for sale. When AlterNet asked why the Kennedy Center would need to sell everything, she made it clear that it was because the institution was "closed," and she referred all other questions to the Kennedy Center.

The Kennedy Center closing was supposed to be temporary. In fact, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found that the Kennedy Center cannot close for the two-year renovation that the administration decided would begin immediately. In May, the judge said the Trump-aligned board's original closure decision was "ill-informed and seemingly preordained" and that the board had not properly considered its legal duty to both maintain and operate the Kennedy Center. He halted the planned two-year shutdown while the underlying lawsuit proceeds, according to court filings.

The order allows repairs to move forward and leaves the door open for a possible extended closure. Last week, the Center's director, Matt Floca, announced it would be closed for only a week. At the end of last week, they announced it would be closed for another week. Now it is clear that, behind the scenes, the Kennedy Center is telling vendors the building is shuttered. For a working performance venue, the complete withdrawal of its house pianos is one of the most tangible markers of the closure dispute now before the courts. It remains unclear whether pianos and instruments beyond the Steinways are being liquidated from the site.

Judge Cooper has now required the administration to give the plaintiffs and the court 30 days' notice before any demolition, new construction, or major change to the project moves forward. That requirement gives the public advance visibility into any structural changes to the landmark while the case proceeds. The judge also sought updates on a short-term closure that officials described as necessary for emergency safety assessments, while making clear that a long-term closure was not possible for now.

Democrats proposed a bill this week to protect the building, but Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is blocking it. That means breaking his filibuster requires a 60-vote supermajority.

AlterNet reached out to the press team at Democracy Defenders, which has represented Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) as she has attempted to sue to protect the building.

"If the Trump administration is in fact closing the Kennedy Center, doing so without permission from the judge is in direct violation of standing court orders. The president is not above the law, and this pattern of brazen defiance reflects a constitutional crisis of his making. The American public deserves answers," said a statement from Beatty's counsel, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group.

The Justice Department claimed in a filing that the Kennedy Center is not closing, but is simply doing renovations because the building is not "safe."

Susan Robinson, principal harpist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1995, commented on Lewis' photos: "We noticed the pianos were disappearing! You were wise to do so. My instrument (harp) used to live over in the Opera House, but I've moved it to the Concert Hall since it's one of the few spaces in the building still occupied by arts professionals! I was really afraid someone would take a wrecking ball to the building irregardless of its precious contents."

AlterNet also contacted the Kennedy Center for comment. The institution did not comment.