An activist couple sprinkled a Claude Monet painting in a German museum on Sunday to protest climate change.
The two activists from the Last Generation group can be seen in a video throwing a thick substance on Monet’s “Les Meules” at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, then gluing their hands to the wall under the painting.
The group then confirmed that the mixture was mashed potatoes.
“Let’s make this #Monet the state and the public the public,” the group later tweeted, along with a video of the incident. “If it takes a painting – with # Mashed Potatoes or # Tomato Soup thrown at it – to remind society that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: then we’ll give you # Mashed Potatoes on a painting!”
Climate change activists vandalizing a painting to raise awareness of climate change.
(Letzte generation)
In total, four people were involved in the incident, according to the German news agency dpa.
ANTI-OIL ENVIRONMENTALISTS POUR TOMATO SOUP ON VAN GOGH’S ‘SUNFLOWER’ PAINTING
The Barberini Museum said the following Sunday that because the painting was enclosed in glass, the mashed potatoes did not cause any damage. The painting, part of Monet’s “Haystacks” series, is expected to be back on display on Wednesday.
“Although I understand activists’ urgent concern over the climate catastrophe, I am shocked by the means by which they are trying to give weight to their demands,” museum director Ortrud Westheider said in a statement.
Police told the dpa they responded to the incident. Last Generation tweeted later on Sunday that the activists, “Mirjam and Benjamin”, were taken to prison without further details.
After throwing mashed potatoes on the painting, climate change activists glued their hand to the wall.
(Letzte generation)
Monet’s painting is the latest artwork in a museum to be targeted by climate activists to draw attention to global warming.
UK group Just Stop Oil launched Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflower Tomato Soup at London’s National Gallery earlier this month.
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Just Stop Oil activists also glued to the frame of a first copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” at the National Gallery.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
