German climate demonstrators threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Claude Monet in the Barberini Museum in Potsdam in the federal state of Brandenburg, about 20 miles southeast of Berlin.
They approached Monet’s Les Meules and threw the potato over the painting and its golden frame.
The demonstrators wore orange high-visibility vests and stuck themselves to the wall under the painting.
“Do you need mashed potatoes in a painting for you to listen? “said one of the activists. “This painting won’t be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When are you finally going to start listening?
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The painting was intact, the museum said, and the authorities said they were investigating the demonstrators, whom the police had not named, for property damage and trespassing.
Ortrud Westheider, director of the museum, said in a statement that while she sympathized with the demonstrators’ concerns, “I am shocked at the means they are using to lend weight to their demands.”
“In the works of the Impressionists, we see an intensive artistic engagement with nature,” added Westheider.
In a statement on Twitter, the group said, “If there was a painting with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it so that society would remember that the price of fossil fuels is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!
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Targeting artworks
According to the German news agency dpa, four people were involved in the stunt.
The activists involved belong to the Last Generation Group, which has called on the federal government to take drastic measures to protect the climate and to stop using fossil fuels.
The painting, part of Monet’s famous Haystacks series, was auctioned off three years ago for 110 million US dollars.
The Barberini Museum said that the activists did no damage because it was enclosed in glass.
The painting is the latest work of art in a museum targeted by climate activists. British group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery earlier this month. According to the museum, this painting was also behind protective glass and intact.
Activists from Just Stop Oil also stuck to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and John Constable’s The Hay Wain at the National Gallery.
German climate demonstrators threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Claude Monet in the Barberini Museum in Potsdam in the federal state of Brandenburg, about 20 miles southeast of Berlin.
They approached Monet’s Les Meules and threw the potato over the painting and its golden frame.
The demonstrators wore orange high-visibility vests and stuck themselves to the wall under the painting.
“Do you need mashed potatoes in a painting for you to listen? “said one of the activists. “This painting won’t be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When are you finally going to start listening?
“
The painting was intact, the museum said, and the authorities said they were investigating the demonstrators, whom the police had not named, for property damage and trespassing.
Ortrud Westheider, director of the museum, said in a statement that while she sympathized with the demonstrators’ concerns, “I am shocked at the means they are using to lend weight to their demands.”
“In the works of the Impressionists, we see an intensive artistic engagement with nature,” added Westheider.
In a statement on Twitter, the group said, “If there was a painting with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it so that society would remember that the price of fossil fuels is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!
“
Targeting artworks
According to the German news agency dpa, four people were involved in the stunt.
The activists involved belong to the Last Generation Group, which has called on the federal government to take drastic measures to protect the climate and to stop using fossil fuels.
The painting, part of Monet’s famous Haystacks series, was auctioned off three years ago for 110 million US dollars.
The Barberini Museum said that the activists did no damage because it was enclosed in glass.
The painting is the latest work of art in a museum targeted by climate activists. British group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery earlier this month. According to the museum, this painting was also behind protective glass and intact.
Activists from Just Stop Oil also stuck to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and John Constable’s The Hay Wain at the National Gallery.