Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 masterpiece, The Sower, in Rome’s Palazzo Bonaparte museum was attacked by art vandals yesterday, leading to questions about art museum security amid a recent wave of such attacks.
The renowned painting of a farmer sowing his land under a dominating sun was vandalized by an eco-activist.
Four women from the group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) shouted slogans against global warming and fossil fuels, and tried to damage the painting by throwing pea soup on it.
“Non-violent direct action will continue until citizens get answers from their government on the demands to stop gas and coal and to invest in at least 20 GW of renewables,” they declared.
Last Generation said in its statement, “Everything that we would have the right to see in our present and our future is being obscured by a real and imminent catastrophe, just as this pea puree has covered the work in the fields”.
The painting, which has been loaned from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the Netherlands, was protected by a glass screen and did not suffer damage, as per reports.
This is not the first time environmental activists attacked a famous painting. Just Stop Oil activists splashed tomato soup on Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London last month.
Other activists threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany, and Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ painting was also targeted by climate activists. Fortunately, all the paintings were undamaged as revealed by the museum owners.
Art world professionals from Paris to New York condemned the acts of vandalism and describe them as “counterproductive” and dangerous.
