Two climate and social activists threw soup this Saturday at a painting by the famous impressionist painter
Claude Monet
exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, in eastern
France
.
The work object of the action is
“Le printemps”
(Spring), from 1872.
The attackers are part of the group
“Riposte Alimentaire”
(Food Response), the same group to which two other young people belonged who on January 28 also threw soup on “La Gioconda”, the masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci that is exhibited in the Parisian Louvre Museum.
In both cases, and in others that occurred previously in other museums in different countries by different environmental groups,
the works were protected by glass
, so they did not suffer permanent damage.
The French group justified its action by saying that "this spring is the only one we will have left if we do not react."
“Riposte Alimentaire” seeks an alternative solution to the climate challenge and food security, by proposing that food be included in the Social Security regime within a transformation of agriculture to make it more sustainable and pay professionals fairly. of the field.
It is not understood how this series of acts of vandalism can benefit the ecology or cause changes in eating habits, as they postulate.
In October 2022, they had
attacked Van Gogh's “Sunflowers” with tomato soup,
in the National Gallery in London, for example.
In the case of the attack on La Gioconda - also known as the Mona Lisa - the two women received a proposal from the French Justice: pay a “citizen contribution” to have the case archived.
The activists sprinkled pumpkin soup on the painting, after introducing it hidden in a coffee thermos.
From “Riposte Alimentaire” they stated that they did it “to defend the right to healthy and sustainable food” and to denounce a
“sick agricultural system.”