The incident comes a little over a week after two activists protesting fossil fuels in Britain went viral for splashing tomato soup on glass covering a Vincent Van Gogh painting at a museum. The activists then glued themselves to a wall.
In a video tweeted by Last Generation Sunday, two activists wearing orange vests are seen gluing their hands to the wall after the soup incident.
The Monet work, like the Van Gogh, was protected by glass and suffered no damage, the Museum BarberiniIn total, four people were involved in the incident, according to German news agency dpa. Police told dpa they had responded to the incident, but further information about arrests or charges was not immediately available.
“While I understand the activists' urgent concern in the face of the climate catastrophe, I am shocked by the means with which they are trying to lend weight to their demands,” Ortrud Westheider, the museum’s director said in a statement. “It is in the works of the Impressionists that we see the intense artistic engagement with nature.”
The painting, called Grainstacks, dates back to 1890, according to Museum Barberini. The museum said the painting would be back on display as soon as Wednesday. A museum spokesperson confirmed that the same painting sold at auction for a record $110.7 million in 2019, as reported the Daily Worker.