Posted on 06/22/2023 2:31:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Two climate activists smeared red paint and glued their hands to the protective glass on a Monet painting on display at the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
The two women, wearing name tags identifying themselves as Emma and Maj, smeared the paint on The Artist’s Garden at Giverny (1900), a vivid landscape by the French Impressionist artist showcasing pink and purple irises. The painting is on display at the National Museum as part of the exhibition “The Garden – Six Centuries of Art and Nature” through a loan from from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which acquired it in 1983.
The two protestors wore T-shirts with the logo of the environmental organization Återställ Våtmarker (Restore Wetlands), which released a video of the protest on Twitter and Facebook. It also claimed responsibility for it in an interview with the AFP and argued that “gorgeous gardens like those in Monet’s painting will soon be a distant memory.”
Återställ Våtmarker spokesperson Helen Wahlgren told AFP that a climate catastrophe “is also a health crisis” with “millions of people already dying from the climate disaster.” She also said the Swedish government needed to do more to honor its international climate commitments. “We should lower our emissions by 31 percent. But our emissions are still increasing. It’s outrageous.”
The museum’s press office confirmed that two people smeared paint on The Artist’s Garden at Giverny around 2:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. Eastern) on June 14.
“The painting, which is encased in glass, is now being inspected by museum conservators to determine whether there is any damage,” the press office told CNN. It later confirmed the painting was unharmed.
“In dialogue with the lender, we’re now looking into the possibilities of reinstalling the artwork in the exhibition,” Hanna Tottmar, head of press at the museum, told The Art Newspaper.
Police were alerted and arrested the two women, according to a press release from the Stockholm Region police, which said in a statement, “The crime is currently classified as aggravated vandalism. It is unclear whether more people than the two arrested are involved in the incident, but a number of people have been checked and the police will, among other things, review the course of events with the help of the museum’s surveillance cameras.”
The police press release was also updated to note that the two women were charged with “suspicion of serious damage.”
The incident at the National Museum in Stockholm follows a wave of climate protests at museums and art institutions in Canada, the United States, and Europe, all aimed at drawing attention to large government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry as well as the growing impact of climate change around the world.
However, the National Museum in Stockholm told the AFP it was “naturally” opposed to actions that risk damaging works of art.
“Cultural heritage has great symbolic value and it is unacceptable to attack or destroy it, regardless of the purpose,” said Per Hedstrom, the museum’s acting superintendent.
Cut their hands off.
Leave the hands on the wall.
Call it art.
Why can’t they just stop exhaling CO2 in protest?
Color me surprised they didn’t do this topless.
Just usually seems to go with the territory, to make a bolder statement and all.
Just shoot ‘em
Time for an attitude adjustment on each and every turd that does this. We’ll close our eyes and make noises to mask their cries of pain. Do it. NOW! They’ll keep doing these things until their are afraid. Very afraid.
From CNN: Aspiring artists make artistic improvements to old white guy Monet painting.
Or smear red “paint” on their faces in the form of big splotches of red tattoos. Let them look freaky (er) for the rest of their lives.
Time to start shooting these people.
It look like those two wouldn’t be making a very bold statement if they were topless...just sayin’...
They need to publically hang these two.
Similar to the radical jihadist Muslims who took chisels, jackhammers and dynamite to destroyirreplaceable ancient artifacts and statues. They were not showing subservience to Islam despite artistic and historical value.
They also abducted a kindly 82 year old scholar who could lead them to little known locations of artifacts. They tortured him to death in prison for a month to make him reveal secrets of the locations.
They hanged his decapitated head from a Roman column as a warning to others.
They make a practice of looting and then selling art objects for money.
Are you sure you'd want to see these two topless? Be careful what you wish for.
Maybe next time, if they do go topless, they can glue their boobies to the painting. That at least would provide some more interesting entertainment as the authorities attempt to remove them.
These frumpy lefty trashbags destroy humanity’s treasures.
They should be treated harshly.
If anything, you are going to anger people against environmentalists. If they keep doing this, someone will come along and say they will dump oil in the ocean every time they do this, or something along those lines.
If anything, you are going to anger people against environmentalists. If they keep doing this, someone will come along and say they will dump oil in the ocean every time they do this, or something along those lines.
Well, they succeeded in one thing. Showing the whole world how incredibly stupid they are,
Crackpot theories and cults come and go but we should preserve the cultural achievements. The Puritans, the Shakers, the Fabians, the Stalinists and others came and went and the items they destroyed in hate are gone.
Shortsighted people cannot tell what the future will value.
At the U of California, Berkeley Library in the early 1960s there was a space problem for new books. The experts were called in to evaluate what books could be destroyed or at least shipped to distant storage.
Note: many people do not know their donations of books to libraries mostly go to trash compactors if not a type to sell quickly at a used book sale. The cost of cataloging and shelving makes most donations (especially magazines and popular novels) not worth keeping.
They decided on books about the unknown such as witchcraft, astrology and mind control, and books about women’s history and movements that were obsolete should go. No one was checking them out back then.
Or don’t. Just leave them there and don’t unglue them. Turn off the lights, close the place, go home for the weekend. Problem will solve itself rather soon.
“I don’t agree with what the Taliban did, but I suppose if you think all idols are an offense to G-d, then you are pleasing G-d.”
Indeed. The Jews teach in their midrash that before Abraham left Shinar, he smashed the idols his father was selling in his shop, because they were an offense to the Lord. I don’t know if any modern-day Jews are quite so fervent on the subject as that, but some Muslims certainly are.
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