Spanish museums are on alert due to the protests by climate activists in recent weeks: they have taken extreme precautions in terms of security, but all are committed to combining security with the museum remaining an accessible and pleasant place.
The knock-on effect of the attacks on works of art is proving to be quite effective: after Just Oil activists threw tomato soup at Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" two weeks ago, it was Monet's turn in Berlin, Picasso in Melbourne, and a few days ago an activist glued his head to a Vermeer in Holland.
The Ministry of Culture made an appeal this week to publicly owned art centers to be "more exhaustive" in complying with access measures. “This is not a security debate, the museums that have had incidents were also on alert,” Prado sources point out.
The director of the art gallery, Miguel Falomir, asked the other day not to give fuel to these incidents in the media because they give publicity to the activists, which is "just what they are looking for", and pointed out that there is a more "intelligent way of defending noble Causes".
All the museums consulted by EFE acknowledge that they are on alert, but they have not increased security because, according to the majority, their protocols are designed "for this type of risk", as they point out from MACBA.
The Prado Museum, for example, has become more scrupulous about access with drinks. Until now, its regulations did not allow entry with food and drink, but if a mother agreed with a bottle, they allowed it. Now you must leave it at the box office.
The incidents of recent weeks have forced it to be less flexible, "more radical", but the art gallery -like the rest of the museums consulted- does not want the visit to its rooms to become "something unpleasant", such as the security queue From the airport.
"The museum is a public facility whose mission is to make works of art available to citizens who want to visit it. We always try to find a balance between facilitating access to the collection and guaranteeing the integrity of the work," they point out from the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.
"Accessibility is very important to us, the museum is a space of freedom and well-being, and it is necessary to always adjust the security measures well so as not to lose that balance," they say from the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC).
All the museums consulted (Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Macba, Joan Miró Foundation, MNAC, Antoni Tapies Foundation, Prado, the National Archaeological Museum and Reina Sofía) have not increased their security forces. Most have, they say, already a series of measures to deal with altercations of this type.
Other art centers, such as the Guggenheim and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, have preferred not to give information because it is a security issue.
In addition to access security controls, most museums have an entrance scanner for packages, and in each room there is also assigned staff to ensure the safety of the works. In Madrid, the Prado and the Reina even have National Police officers on the street. In the case of the former, there are also plainclothes agents inside.
The works affected by the altercations of recent weeks have been saved by protection glass. Interestingly, the most important work in the Reina Sofía Museum, El Guernica, had bulletproof glass that protected it until 1995.
She was also accompanied by a Civil Guard, but extreme security withdrew considering that the dangers associated with her security had ended with the establishment of democracy in Spain. The removal of the crystal was quite an event.
One of the activists who threw tomato soup on Van Gogh's painting assured a few days ago in a video on Tik Tok that the action would never have taken place if the painting had not been protected.
"We know it seems like a ridiculous action," she acknowledges. "But we are doing this because we need people to talk about it now (climate change and energy crisis) and history has proven to us that civil resistance works. I am a queer woman, and the The reason I can vote, go to college and marry the person I love is because people before me have engaged in civil resistance.
