Days after climate activists threw tomato soup over Vincent Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' in the United Kingdom, activists in Germany threw a pot of mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting on Sunday.
They were protesting fossil fuel extraction on Sunday, but caused no damage to the artwork.
Two activists from the group Letzte Generation or Last Generation, which has called on the German government to take drastic action to protect the climate and stop using fossil fuels, approached Monet’s “Les Meules” at Potsdam’s Barberini Museum and threw a thick substance over the painting and its gold frame.
Later, via a tweet, the group confirmed that the mixture was mashed potatoes. The two activists who were wearing orange high-visibility vests, glued themselves to the wall below the painting.
Also watch: Watch: activists throw soup over Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting
After gluing themselves to the wall, one of them said, 'People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying. We are in a climate catastrophe. And all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting. You know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid because science tells that we won't be able to feed our families in 2050.'
Adding she said, 'Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to make you listen? This paitning is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When we will finally start to listen? When will you finally start to listen and stop business as usual?'
Germany news agency dpa reported that in total, 4 people were involved in the incident.
The Barberini Museum on Sunday said that because the painting was enclosed in glass, the mashed potatoes didn't cause any damage to it.
The painting, a part of Monet's 'Haystacks' series, is expected to be back on display on Wednesday.
“While I understand the activists’ urgent concern in the face of the climate catastrophe, I am shocked by the means with which they are trying to lend weight to their demands,” museum director Ortrud Westheider said in a statement.
Police told dpa they had responded to the incident, but further information about arrests or charges was not immediately available.
The Monet painting is the latest artwork in a museum to be targeted by climate activists to draw attention to global warming.
The British group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery earlier this month.
Just Stop Oil activists also glued themselves to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” in the National Gallery.
with AP inputs