A climate activist was arrested on Saturday for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global warming, a police source told AFP.
The action of this woman, a member of the “Food Response” – a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production – is the latest in a series of demonstrations aimed at drawing attention to global warming by degrading the ‘art. .
In a video posted on
In the video, she says of the poster covering Monet’s art that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place.”
She added: “At four degrees we can expect hell,” a reference to predictions that Earth’s temperature could rise 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050.
Monet’s painting, completed in 1873, shows people with umbrellas walking through a field of blooming poppies and is part of a special exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay titled “Paris 1874, inventing impressionism” which features 130 works by 31 artists.
A restoration expert examined the painting which did not suffer any permanent damage, the Musée d’Orsay told AFP, specifying that it had been reassembled on the wall.
“The exhibition is once again fully accessible to the public,” said a spokesperson.
The museum will file a criminal complaint, the spokesperson added.
– ‘We love art’ –
Some of Monet’s works have sold for tens of millions of dollars, with his painting “Meules” (“Haystacks”) even fetching more than $110 million including fees at a 2019 auction.
La Riposte Alimentaire has claimed responsibility for several attacks on art in France in a bid to draw attention to the climate crisis and deteriorating food quality.
Among them, an attack on the world’s most famous portrait, “The Mona Lisa,” at the Louvre in January, when two protesters threw soup at the bulletproof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, affirming that they have the right to “healthy and sustainable food”. “.
The attackers were convicted by a Paris court for carrying out voluntary activities within a charity association.
Already in 2022, a man threw a Mona Lisa cream pie because, he said, artists were not focusing enough on “the planet”.
In February, Food Response protesters threw soup at a painting again, this time in Lyon, southeastern France, targeting another Monet painting, “Spring.”
Last month, activists also belonging to the group pasted leaflets around “Liberty Leading the People,” a painting by Eugène Delacroix on display at the Louvre.
In April, two of its members were arrested at the Musée d’Orsay, dedicated to 19th century art, on suspicion of preparing an action there.
La Riposte Alimentaire defines itself as a “French civil resistance movement which aims to bring about radical societal change for the environment and society”.
“We love art,” the movement said, “but future artists will have nothing to paint on a burning planet.”
Monet also appears to be a favored target of climate activists elsewhere, with the impressionist’s paintings having previously been attacked in Potsdam, Germany, and Stockholm.
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