82-year-old priest and 85-year-old retired teacher break case by holding copy of Magna Carta during environmental protest

The display case containing an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library in London was smashed on Friday by two environmental activists, causing minor damage to the reinforced box but leaving the historic document unscathed.

The two protesters from Just Stop Oil, a group which has caused widespread disruption in Britain in its campaign to end the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, have hit the case with hammer and chisel.

Video sequence posted online shows the Reverend Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, an 85-year-old retired biology teacher, holding up a sign reading “Government is breaking the law”, before sticking to the screen.

The two men released a statement saying they had targeted the document to highlight the dangers of climate change.

“Magna Carta is rightly revered because it is of great importance to our history, to our freedoms and to our laws,” Parfitt said. “But there will be no freedom, no legality, no rights if we allow climate change to turn into the catastrophe that is now threatened.”

London Metropolitan Police said two people had been arrested.

The library’s security team intervened to prevent further damage to the Magna Carta file, considered one of the founding documents of Western democracy.

The Treasure Gallery is temporarily closed until further notice, the library said.

It was the latest public display of vandalism against famous works of art and history.

In January, two climate activists from the group Food Riposte poured soup on the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris. Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting was also targeted in 2022 when a man dressed as an elderly lady in a wheelchair cream cake spread on the table.

In October 2023, five Just Stop Oil activists were arrested in London after storming the stage of a West End production of Les Miserables. Protesters took the stage with orange banners saying “The show can’t go on” during the song “Do You Hear the People Sing.” They also locked onto part of the set using bike locks. The group has also targeted Johannes Vermeer’s iconic painting “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, Netherlands in October 2022.

Also in 2022, two climate activists I threw some mashed potatoes to Claude Monet’s “Meules” then stuck under the painting at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany. The board was not damaged during the incident.

Also last year, climate activists turned the water in Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain black. protest against the fossil fuel industry.