At the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, climate activists have caused a stir with a new protest: Two women spray-painted pop artist Andy Warhol’s famous “Campbell’s Soup Cans” screenprints with blue paint and then taped their hands to them. However, the works were protected with glass and remained undamaged. The group Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies posted videos of Wednesday’s action on Twitter. “Australia needs to do more, we cannot reduce CO2 while continuing to authorize coal and gas,” the group wrote.
One of the activists said in a statement: “Andy Warhol portrayed consumption gone mad in this iconic series, and now we have capitalism gone mad.” The museum did not want to comment on the action and only emphasized that the police were involved. The affected screen prints were temporarily removed and cleaned before being put back in place, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.
Similar protests had already taken place in many European countries, including Germany, before the 27th World Climate Conference (COP27) was taking place in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. On Saturday, two climate activists glued themselves to the frames of two famous paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Goya at the Prado Museum in Madrid.
In October, three climate activists were arrested at the Mauritshuis art museum in the Netherlands after an attack on the world-famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1665-1667) by Johannes Vermeer. Also in October, a man and a woman spilled mashed potatoes on Claude Monet’s painting “Grainstacks” (1890) at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam. Before that, tomato soup was thrown at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery.
