On Sunday (local time), anti-fossil fuel activists flung mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum, but the artwork was unharmed.
Two Last Generation activists approached Monet’s “Les Meules” at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam and threw a viscous material over the artwork and its gold frame. Last Generation has urged the German government to take immediate action to safeguard the planet and stop using fossil fuels.
Later, the group acknowledged via a tweet that the substance was mashed potatoes. The two activists also painted themselves to the wall next to the artwork while donning orange high-visibility vests.
The group posted a video of the incident to Twitter along with the message, “If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society recall that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!”
The event included four people in total, according to the German news agency DPA.
The picture was protected by glass, according to a later statement from the Barberini Museum, thus the mashed potatoes did not harm the artwork. On Wednesday, the painting from Monet’s “Haystacks” series is anticipated to return to display (local time).
In a statement, museum director Ortrud Westheider said, “While I understand the activists’ serious concern in the face of the climate disaster, I am appalled by the techniques with which they are trying to lend weight to their demands.”
Police informed DPA that they had responded to the event, but that they did not yet have any additional information regarding any arrests or charges.
The Monet painting is the most recent piece of art in a museum to be attacked by environmentalists in an effort to raise awareness of global warming.
Earlier this month, the British organisation Just Stop Oil splashed tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in the National Gallery in London.
Just Stop Oil activists also glued themselves to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” in the National Gallery..
Mashed potatoes were thrown at a Monet painting by climate activists.
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