Monet Painting at the Musée d'Orsay Vandalized by Climate Activist - ARTnews
Monet Painting at the Musée d’Orsay Vandalized by Climate Activist
A climate activist affixed an adhesive poster to a Monet painting at the Musée d’Orsay Saturday. The woman, who said she intended to raise awareness for climate change, was arrested.
The stunt was carried out by a member of Riposte Alimentaire(Food Response), a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production in response to the climate crisis. The group has been targeting museums across Europe for years, including most recently a protest at the Louvre last month.
A video on X showed the activist sticking an adhesive barren red landscape on top of Claude Monet’s 1873 painting Coquelicots, saying, according to the Guardian, “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place”.
The French Impressionist’s work depicts people with umbrellas roaming through a blooming poppy field. Unlike works like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, which has been the subject of much backlash, it was not protected by glass.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate diplomacy
Talks are well underway in preparation for the next major international meeting on climate change, 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in the United Arab Emirates.
Much like last year’s COP27, finances — specifically, aid to developing nations — will be at the center of conference deliberations.
The conference faces an even greater sense of urgency brought on by the Sept. 8, 2023, release of the first global stocktake, which calls for accelerated action to meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (COP21).
Climate diplomacy: COP 27 | Climate diplomacy: COP 28 | Climate diplomacy: COP 29