Activist arrested for attack on Monet painting in Paris

A climate activist was arrested on Saturday for sticking a poster on a Monet painting at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay to draw attention to global warming, a police source told AFP.

The action by the woman, a member of Riposte Alimentaire (Food Reaction) – a group of environmental activists and advocates of sustainable food production – is the latest in a series of protests to raise awareness of global warming by damaging works of art.

In a video posted on X, the woman – who describes herself as a “concerned citizen” – can be seen sticking a blood-red poster over the painting “Coquelicots” (Field of Poppies) by French impressionist Claude Monet.

In the video, she said of the poster of Monet’s art: “This nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is created.”

She added: “Four degrees is hell,” a reference to projections that say the Earth’s temperature could rise by four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

Completed in 1873, Monet’s painting shows people with umbrellas walking through a field of blooming poppies and is part of a special exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay entitled “Paris 1874, the Invention of Impressionism,” which includes 130 works by 31 artists.

A restoration expert examined the painting and found that it had not suffered any permanent damage, the Musée d’Orsay told the AFP news agency. The painting was hung back on the wall.

“The exhibition is once again fully accessible to the public,” said a spokesman.

The museum will file a criminal complaint, the spokesman added.

– “We love art” –

Some of Monet’s works have sold for tens of millions of dollars, and his painting “Meules” (“Haystack”) even fetched over 110 million dollars including fees at an auction in 2019.

Riposte Alimentaire has claimed responsibility for several attacks on works of art in France to raise awareness of the climate crisis and deteriorating food quality.

This included an attack on the world’s most famous portrait, the “Mona Lisa”, in the Louvre in January, when two protesters threw soup at the bulletproof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, claiming they had a right to “healthy and sustainable food”.

The attackers were sentenced by a Paris court to do volunteer work for a charity.

Back in 2022, a man threw a custard pie at the Mona Lisa because he felt artists were not focusing enough on “the planet.”

In February, protesters from the organization Riposte Alimentaire again threw soup at a painting, this time in Lyon, southeastern France. Their target was another painting by Monet, “Spring.”

Last month, activists also belonging to the group posted leaflets around “Liberty Leading the People,” a painting by Eugène Delacroix in the Louvre.

In April, two of its members were arrested at the Musée d’Orsay, a museum of 19th-century art, on suspicion of having planned an action there.

Riposte Alimentaire describes itself as a “French civil resistance movement that wants to initiate radical social change for the environment and society”.

“We love art,” the movement’s statement says, “but on a burning planet, the artists of the future will have nothing left to paint.”

Monet also seems to be a popular target of climate activists elsewhere: paintings by the impressionist have already been the target of attacks in Potsdam and Stockholm.

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