In another shocking climate protest, activists have thrown mashed potato on a $100 million Monet at a German museum.
On Sunday, two protestors from the environmental activist group Letzte Generation entered the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. Once inside, they threw mashed potato starch at a Monet painting and then superglued themselves around it. A video of the incident soon found its way to social media. Both were later taken away, though it seems no charges are being pressed against them.
The painting in question is Mueles, completed by Claude Monet in 1890. In 2019, it was bought by art collector Hasso Plattner for $110.9 million. For some time, the painting has been given on loan to the Museum Barberini for exhibition. After the incident, the museum announced that no damage came to the painting since it was ‘glazed’, and the work will be back on view by Wednesday.
In a statement, Letzte Generation said: “The painting was not damaged in the action. Quite in contrast to the immeasurable suffering that floods, storms and droughts are already bringing upon us today as harbingers of the impending catastrophe.” Aimée van Baalen, a spokesperson of the group, said in a separate statement: “Monet loved nature and captured its unique and fragile beauty in his works. How is it that so many are more afraid of damaging one of these images of reality than of the destruction of our world itself, the magic of which Monet admired so much?”
The current incident is only the latest in a series of increasingly escalating climate protests that involve defacing artworks. Most recently, protestors from JustStopOil defaced a van Gogh painting at National Gallery, in London. The incident widespread outrage and criticism from the art world and the general public alike. But such incidents have been occurring for many months. In May, the Mona Lisa was vandalized with cake from a climate protestor.
