Two Last Generation activists this morning poured a black, oily liquid onto the Austrian painter’s masterpiece Gustav Klimt Tod und Leben (Death and life) at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. While the former was immediately stopped by a security guard, while shouting phrases against the use of oil (“we have known about the problem for 50 years, we must finally act, otherwise the planet will be destroyed”), the latter managed to sticking his hand to the glass that protected the 1915 painting, before the police arrived.
After Botticelli at the Uffizi in Florence, Van Gogh at the National Gallery in London and then in Rome, Monet in Potsdam, Goya in Madrid, picasso at the National Gallery in Victoria, Australia, Leonardo da Vinci at the Royal Academy of Arts and John Constable at the National Gallery, also in London, it is the latest painting “assaulted” by environmental activists. Last Generation Austria posted the video of the action on Twitter, also writing the motivation: «New oil and gas wells are a death sentence for humanity».
Adding insult to injury: on a day when schools were closed, admission today 15 November was free for the initiative #’OpenforArt, sponsored by the Austrian gas group OMV. The two activists, despite the controls at the entrance, they managed to get in by hiding the black liquid in a hot water bottle under their clothes. The painting was protected by glass, the liquid was immediately removed and now the painting is in the hands of the museum restorers to understand if there may be any damage.
Last Generation to motivate these attacks declared: «It is a desperate and scientifically based cry that cannot be understood as mere vandalism. Nonviolent direct action will continue until citizens get answers from their government on calls to stop gas and coal and invest in at least 20 GW of renewables. In the meantime, the director of the Prado in Madrid replied, who, in a statement signed by the directors of over 90 world-class museums including the Guggenheim in New York, the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence, he wrote that the environmental activists attacking the paintings “gravely underestimate” the damage that could be caused.
Source: Vanity Fair
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