A good week after climate activists attacked a painting by Claude Monet, the Barberini Museum in Potsdam reopened. From today (10:00 a.m.), visitors are allowed back into the house, which was closed due to the disruptive action. The museum announced at the weekend that it was increasing security precautions. In the future, the exhibition rooms could only be visited after handing in jackets and bags at the cloakroom or in the lockers.
Climate activists have recently repeatedly caused discussions with controversial actions. For example, they regularly blocked streets in Berlin. Three climate activists were arrested in The Hague on Thursday after an attack on the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer.
On Sunday, two women glued themselves to the bars of a dinosaur skeleton in the Berlin Museum of Natural History. The security service alerted the police, said a police spokeswoman. Two women aged 34 and 42 were then found in the museum. They were released from the bars and taken into police custody. Reports and criminal charges were filed for trespassing and property damage.
Pictures showed two women wearing orange vests and holding a banner that read, “What if the government can’t handle this?” The protest group “Last Generation” said about the action: “Just like the dinosaurs back then, we are threatened with climate changes that we cannot withstand. If we don’t want to see ourselves threatened with extinction, we have to act now.”
The Berlin police were also called to another disruptive action in a museum on Sunday afternoon, the background to which was initially not clear. A spokesman for the State Museums said that an individual threw artificial blood liquid at the glass painting “Clown” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the wall covering there in the Impressionist Hall and stuck it to the wall next to the painting. “Before, she had distributed leaflets in the hall.”
“I am shocked by this further senseless attack on art, which in this case obviously cannot be assigned to any climate-politically active group,” said the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, on Sunday evening. According to the current state of knowledge, the work is fortunately not badly damaged, but there was considerable damage in the exhibition room. “Paint and glue must be removed from the fabric-covered wall,” said Parzinger.
Just a week ago, activists in Potsdam’s Barberini Museum spilled a liquid on Claude Monet’s painting “Grainstacks,” which had protective glass. The group “Last Generation” claimed responsibility at the time and said it was an attack with mashed potatoes. The Monet painting was not damaged thanks to glazing and a special felt strip, according to the museum. The museum had since closed because security measures were to be discussed with the lenders for the current surrealism exhibition. Now the house should open again.
Climate activist protests are highly controversial. Berlin’s culture senator Klaus Lederer (left) had expressed doubts about the sense of such actions last week, even if the concerns of the activists were justified. “We must indeed act very, very quickly. We have no more time.”
People who use democratic opportunities to draw attention to the impending climate catastrophe would have his support. But he has no understanding for attacking works of art. “Because I don’t believe that smearing and destroying works of art actually contributes to increasing understanding of the urgency of taking action on climate change,” said Lederer.
When asked about road blockades, Lederer said the idea behind these actions was to force people to see. “But that suggests that those who are stuck in traffic and can’t get any further are the ones who can improve the situation through individual action. In many cases, they can’t.” Anyone who relies on their car to get to work has a problem. But you don’t get any support for your concerns through supposed actions. “But you will rather reap incomprehension and you will upset people against you.”
Natural History Museum in Berlin Last generation on Twitter Tweet by the group on the action in Berlin Lederer in the rbb evening show last week Website of the Old National Gallery Report by the “B.Z.” on police operations in museums
