Members of the group Last Generation Austria attacked the 1915 Death And Life painting at the Leopold Museum in Vienna to protest their government’s use of fossil fuels. After throwing the liquid at the painting – which was undamaged because it was behind a glass cover – one activist was pushed back by a museum guard while another protester stuck his hand to the painting’s frame. On Twitter the group defended the action, saying they were protesting “oil and gas drilling”, which it called a “death sentence for society”. In a video of the incident, which the group posted online, one of the activists can be heard shouting that “we’ve known about the problem for 50 years – we must finally act or the planet will break”. “Stop fossil fuel destruction. We are fighting a climate hell.” Different activist groups have staged numerous protests in recent months, including blocking roads and throwing mash at a Claude Monet painting in Germany. Image: Monet painting with mashed potatoes Image: Pic: Just Stop Oil British band Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery last month. Members of the same organization also stuck to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and John Constable’s The Hay Wain at the National Gallery.
