Now it was the turn of one of the most iconic paintings of Renaissance art
Sandro Botticelli:
The Birth of Venus
,
from 1485.
Two members of the group Última Generación attacked the work, one of the "
celebrities" of the Italian city of Florence.
They entered the
Uffizi Gallery
, the former Medici palace, and covered the protective glass of Botticell i's masterpiece
with photographs that reflect the effects of climate change.
The
more than 500-year-old
piece is an allegory of the rebirth of the human soul and was covered by images that
aim to warn about the environmental emergency.
On the glass that protects the
more than 5 centuries
old fabric, the activists pasted images of the
Tuscan city under water, due to the recent flood in Campi Bisenzio
, and thus covered - in part - the famous 15th century canvas.
Sticker.
About Botticelli's "celebrity" glass.
Photo: AP
This same work had already been attacked in 2022, by two activists who
had glued their hands to the glass
that protected Botticelli's painting in the Uffizi.
The work
did not suffer any damage
then or now, according to local media.
"Today this painting, a symbol of love and beauty, has been transformed, showing
the destruction and pain that we are already experiencing due to the climate crisis
. The Government continues to pretend that the fields will not burn in January, that water will not be a problem this summer, that the houses destroyed by floods are accidental events and not caused by human decisions. And instead of addressing these real problems, it dictates absurd laws," read one of the activists, before being arrested, along with the another attacker.
Symbol of classic beauty and rebirth.
"The Birth of Venus", by Botticelli.
Immediately after reading the statement, a banner reading
"20 billion repair fund for damage caused by climate disasters" was placed on the floor of the Uffizi hall.
In January, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, had said that "a sacrosanct battle like that of the environmental emergency cannot be fought by attacking, even if only symbolically, art and culture."
In just the last few days, activists poured pumpkin soup on the glass protecting
Leonardo da Vinci
's
Mona Lisa
in late January, and did the same on
impressionist painter
Claude Monet 's
Springtime
at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. .
The series began in 2021
, when
Van Gogh
's
Sunflowers
were attacked in the National Gallery in London, while in October 2022 the Dutch police arrested three climate activists from the
Just Stop Oil movement after
they attacked the painting
The Young Woman of the Pearl
(1665), by the Golden Age painter
Johannes Vermeer
, in the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague.
Later they threw flour on a car painted by
Andy Warhol
, or threw red paint on a painting by
Claude Monet
in Stockholm, among other vandalism.
The actions have done nothing but gain
criticism and rejection
: they break into closed spaces, attack cultural heritage, mostly works hundreds of years old, sometimes throw
food
, in the name of defending the planet.
Do you think museums don't care about climate change?
It emerged from a statement issued last year by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in response to this wave that has intensified in the last two years.
The Italian Parliament approved a law in January that
increases penalties
for perpetrators of actions against monuments or cultural sites, in response to a series of actions by climate defenders.
With agency information
J.S.