Climate activists aren’t doing themselves any favors trying to destroy famous art. If they wanted attention, they got it. The jury is out on whether this is drumming up support.
The latest fiasco happened in Germany when a group of two young protestors threw mashed potatoes on a work by Claude Monet. The incident happened at the Potsdam museum, where two protestors against climate change tried to deface the Les Meules, or Haystacks, painting before gluing their hands to the wall.
The group chanted, “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.” Their group, Letzte Generation or Last Generation, shared video of the protest to their Twitter.
This follows a similar incident in London in which two women threw tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh‘s “Sunflowers.”
The group says people should be more upset that “we won’t be able to feed our families in 2050” than what they have done to two famous paintings.
A spokesperson from the museum says the Monet painting, which sold for $110.7 million in a 2019 auction, was not damaged because it was protected by glass.
Meanwhile, both groups of climate protestors have been met by stark criticism by fellow climate activists who say these stunts are harming their cause by causing more anger than concern.