Representatives of the organization Letzte Generation ("Last Generation") doused a painting by Claude Monet in the Barberini Museum, located in Potsdam near Berlin, writes Berliner Kurier. After that, they put on orange reflective vests and taped their hands to the wall. Activists claim that in this way they are trying to draw attention to the world ecology.
“People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying – we are in a climate disaster and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes in pictures,” says one activist. Video of the incident has surfaced on social media.
With this action, the activists joined the protest of the Just Stop Oil movement, which on October 14 poured tomato soup on a Van Gogh painting at the National Gallery in London.
Two people who participated in the action in Germany were arrested by the police. Presumably, four people took part in the action. It is not yet known if the painting, which is valued at $110 million, was damaged. Mashed potatoes could have fallen under the glass that protects the painting. Now it is at the restorers, who should assess and report if there is any damage.
Last year, representatives of the Last Generation movement staged a hunger strike in front of the Reichstag building, thus protesting against the "unwillingness of politicians to act in connection with the climate situation."