Climate activists turn heads with latest stunts on famous works of art | national news

Climate activists are attracting attention with protests over the past few months targeting famous works of art ranging from Vincent van Gogh’s “sunflowers” to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”.

Claude Monet’s “Grainstacks” were one of the last targets in a German museum on Sunday. Protesters threw mashed potatoes at the painting, which sold for nearly $111 million at an auction in 2019. The two protesters then stuck to the wall, one shouting in German that the world is in a “climate disaster, and all you’re afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a chalkboard”.

The painting was not damaged, according to the museum.

“Since the image is glazed, immediate preservation investigation showed that it was not damaged in any way,” the museum said. tweeted. He added that the painting will be exhibited again on Wednesday.

Last Generation, a climate change advocacy group, took responsibility for the stunt.

“The painting was not damaged in the action,” the band wrote in a blog post. “Quite in contrast to the immeasurable suffering that floods, storms and droughts are already inflicting on us today as harbingers of impending doom.”

The move comes just days after a similar stunt left van Gogh’s ‘sunflowers’ covered in tomato soup. The National Gallery in London said the painting was undamaged.

The protesters belonged to the Just Stop Oil group, which told the New York Times that more protests were planned.

And they kept that promise.

On Monday, band members also covered a Madame Tussauds wax model of King Charles III with a chocolate cake. The group said the couple “demanded that the government suspend all new oil and gas licenses and authorisations”.

And the stunts have been going on for months. In May, a climate activist smeared cake on Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” at the Louvre Museum in Paris, saying “there are people who are destroying the Earth”.

These actions are just the latest in a series of gripping stunts that climate activists hope will propel the subject of climate change to the forefront.