Another painting by Vincent van Gogh has been this Friday the victim of a new protest action against global warming. A group of three young activists have launched vegetable puree on The Sower (1888), a work that was exhibited within an exhibition dedicated to the Dutch master at the Bonaparte Palace in Rome.
The painting, on loan from the Kroeller-Mueller museum in the Netherlands, was protected by glass and was not damaged. They are members of the “Last Generation” collective, who after pouring out the puree stuck to the wall of the gallery and shouted slogans against climate change and fossil fuels. The center's security guards have quickly intervened, closing the exhibition rooms to visitors.
“We act for the love of life, that is, for the love of art. In a future in which it will be difficult for us to find food for everyone, how can we think that art will still be protected?”, the group has published on its Twitter account with the image of the three authors of the action, which is carried out a week before the COP27 climate change conference to be held in Egypt.
The authors of the gesture have quietly entered the museum paying their entrance fee and have approached the work through the crowd, taking the puree out of a can. "At the moment we can only say that the work has not been damaged," reported Arthemisia, the company that has been in charge of the exhibition. A visitor explained to Corriere della Sera that she was photographing the painting when she saw “through the lens a green liquid falling on the surface of the painting. I immediately lowered the photo machine and a circus was set up, ”she said, referring to the commotion around the protest.
The new Italian culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, has condemned the action as an "ignoble act" against art. “Culture, which is at the base of our identity, must be defended and protected, not used as a megaphone for other forms of protest. In addition, our cultural heritage must be protected precisely from the consequences of climate change. This umpteenth gesture cannot pass as a legitimate expression of protest”, he added, in a statement.
The minister concluded by threatening to sanction environmentalists, recalling that "crimes against cultural property are severely punished and that the perpetrators are criminally prosecuted." The Italian Penal Code already includes crimes against cultural heritage, including "destruction, loss, deterioration or degradation of cultural or landscape property", which involves fines of up to 20,000 euros and sentences of up to five years in prison.
The Sower is not the first Van Gogh painting to be attacked by climate activists. A few weeks ago, members of Just Stop Oil spilled tomato soup on the Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London. Other works that have also suffered similar actions have been a painting by Claude Monet in the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, in Germany, and the well-known painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer, in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.
