Although many do not accept it, protests have been part of humanity since time immemorial because they increase the intensity that the individual voice lacks to resonate with greater force. For this reason, it is common for different social struggles to choose to attract attention with noisy actions, since this allows the message they want to communicate to reach as far as possible.
It has recently become popular to throw food at famous paintings that are exhibited in museums as exponents of world art history. Whether or not you agree with this type of protest, the purpose of these actions has been more than fulfilled, as it has made the statement reach everyone’s ears.
The last of these “attacks” was carried out by three activists who are part of the group called Last Generation, who present themselves on their website as “the last generation that can still prevent society from collapsing.” These have confessed that they are willing to go to the last consequences in order to try to save humanity from the climate catastrophe that is coming.
For this reason, the activists threw mashed vegetables at the famous work The sower (which was protected by glass), painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1888, which is exhibited as part of an exhibition dedicated to the Dutch genius at the Bonaparte Palace in Rome, Italy. In addition, during the act, they shouted slogans against the use of coal, as well as requests to raise awareness about climate change.
Vegetable puree dumped on Van Gogh’s The Sower in Rome https://t.co/JPzHQObJ8D pic.twitter.com/nFpmHYcPXq
— THE WORLD (@elmundoes) November 4, 2022
Everything that we would have a right to see in our present and our future is being obscured by a real and imminent catastrophe.
After the incident, the museum’s security guard immediately closed the exhibition halls. Later, he notified the police so that they could arrest the three women, as well as a photographer, who, according to official sources, could possibly have been part of the group.
Prior to this attack, the Last Generation group threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Claude Monet, from the series Les Meules (the haystacks), exhibited at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, near Berlin, among other actions such as hunger strikes due to the lack of political action to stop the increase in global temperature.
At the moment these cases of destruction and public violence are still being investigated, but it is important to mention that the climate activists who attacked The girl of the pearlby Johannes Vermeer, in the Mauritshuis museum, in The Hague, the Netherlands, were sentenced to two months in prison, because although the work was protected by glass, the frame suffered some damage.
Climate activists attack Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by sticking her head to the painting. pic.twitter.com/szF7fkRhfH
— Wall Street Wolverine (@wallstwolverine) October 27, 2022
Despite the fact that the prosecutor requested four months in prison for the activists of the Just Stop Oil group, the magistrate stated that he did not want his sentence to discourage other people from demonstrating, since he described the message of the protest as “shocking”. These were the words of one of the activists who was sentenced to prison:
How does it feel to see something so beautiful and valuable being seemingly torn apart before your eyes? We feel outraged. This painting is protected by glass. That’s fine, but vulnerable people around the planet are not protected. The future of our children is not protected. People in extreme poverty have to choose between heating or eating and they are not protected.
Source: Okchicas
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
