After the United Kingdom, the irruption of environmental activists in the heart of museums and closer to works of art continues in Italy.
Two activists took security guards at the Uffizi museum in Florence by surprise by unfurling a banner at the foot of Botticelli's
Spring
on Friday and sticking their hand to the glass protecting the Florentine Renaissance masterpiece.
"The only thing we can do to save our society, to save the future of all humanity, is to stop investing in fossil fuels"
, proclaimed the activists of the Italian movement Ultima Generazione (Last generation), before being arrested by the museum's security forces and being taken into custody by the Carabinieri, with a third activist intervening in support of his comrades.
The management of the Uffizi clarified that Botticelli's
tempera
on panel was not damaged by this action.
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The ecological and non-violent movement promised that this first irruption at the Uffizi inaugurated
“a new season of actions”
within Italian museums
“in Florence, Venice, Milan and Rome”
.
According to activists' press releases published on Friday, preserving the beauty immortalized by the Florentine painter makes it precisely necessary to act as quickly as possible for the climate.
Warn against the end of civilization
“Is it possible to see a spring as beautiful as this today?
questioned the movement which demands the end of the exploitation of gas and coal.
“If the climate collapses, all of civilization as we know it collapses.
There will be no more tourism, no more museums, no more art
", added the group, specifying that it had consulted experts in art restoration prior to their action at the Offices, in order to ensure that their militants would cause no damage to Botticelli's work.
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Reacting to the criticisms that have blossomed following their action in Florence, the movement also clarified on Friday evening that
“the inconvenience we have created is nothing compared to the billion climate migrants and the many deaths that the climate crisis is already causing”
.
In activity since December, the Italian collective interrupted a performance of the opera Madame Butterfly
on July 15
, during the Puccini festival in Torre del Lago, Tuscany.
Close to other environmental groups such as the British Just Stop Oil, the French Last Renovation or the Germans Der Letzer Generation, Ultima Generazione belongs to the
"international movement of civil resistance"
A22, financed by the Climate Emergency Fund Climate Emergency), an American philanthropic foundation.
Stick to the cause
The new mode of militant action consisting of investing in museums and sticking one's hand on a work of art appeared across the Channel from the end of June.
Activists from Just Stop Oil intervened in quick succession in five British museums, including the National Gallery, by sticking to the frame of various paintings, including landscapes by Van Gogh and William Turner.
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In France, several museums have confirmed that they are closely following the development of these new forms of militant outbursts which raise the question of the safety of the works on display.
According to several videos posted online, at least two and a half minutes passed on Friday, before a security guard from the Offices intervened to push back the two activists glued to the framework of the
Printemps
de Botticelli.
“The museums are not ready”
, confided in early July to
Le Figaro
an activist from Extinction Rebellion.
"What picture should we stick to in France to be up to the climate chaos that is coming?"
, also questioned, on July 8, the Last Renovation movement which intervened at Roland-Garros as well as during the Tour de France.