The protest at Potsdam’s Barberini museum follows Van Gogh’s Sunflowers hit by soup at London’s National Gallery
On Sunday, activists threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Monet, on display at Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. The environmentalists – from the Last Generation group – wore fluorescent jackets, as they hurled the liquified food over Les Meules (1890), which was covered by protective glass; they then proceeded to glue their hands to the wall.
The group commented on the action in a statement on social media: ‘If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society remember that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!’
The museum initially said that the artwork had not been damaged by the protest and would be put back on display later this week. But in a statement on Monday, the institution said that it would be closing until 30 October in order to assess future risks to the collection.
Ortrud Westheider, director of the Museum Barberini, commented: ‘The attack on a work of the Hasso Plattner Collection as well as previous attacks on artworks, among others in the National Gallery in London, have shown that the high international security standards for the protection of artworks in case of activist attacks are not sufficient and need to be adapted.’
The action is the latest in a long line of climate protests at museums; a week ago, activists from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888) at London’s National Gallery.
Writing about the incident on artreview.com last week, philosopher Tom Whyman questioned whether it’s ever OK to soup a Van Gogh – if the world really is sliding towards Armageddon, he wrote, then destroying art might be well be justified: ‘art is implicated in the climate disaster whether it wants to be or not.’
