After throwing the liquid on the portray, which wasn’t broken, one activist was pushed away by a museum guard whereas one other glued his hand to the glass over the portray’s body.
The group defended the protest, saying in a tweet that they have been protesting “oil and fuel drilling,” which they referred to as “a loss of life sentence to society.”
In a video of the incident, which the group posted on-line, one of many activists will be heard shouting that “we now have recognized about the issue for 50 years — we should lastly act, in any other case the planet can be damaged.”
“Cease the fossil gas destruction. We’re racing right into a local weather hell,” he added.
After the assault, police arrived on the museum and the black liquid was rapidly cleaned off the glass defending the portray, Austria Press Company reported.
Regardless of thorough controls on the museum’s entrance, the activists succeeded in bringing the liquid inside by hiding it in a scorching water bottle below their garments, the company reported.
The Leopold Museum couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
The Klimt work is an oil on canvas portray within the Artwork Nouveau type depicting loss of life on the left facet and a bunch of partially bare, hugging folks on the best facet. It’s one of many newest items of artwork to be focused by local weather activists to attract consideration to international warming.
Totally different activist teams have staged quite a few demonstrations in latest months, together with blocking streets and throwing mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in Germany.
The British group Simply Cease Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s Nationwide Gallery final month.
Simply Cease Oil activists additionally glued themselves to the body of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Final Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” within the Nationwide Gallery.
Observe AP’s protection of local weather points and the atmosphere at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
