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(Credits: @OliLondonTV/X)
Over the last couple of years, climate activists have regularly taken their frustrations out on the art world, with a painting by impressionist figurehead Claude Monet the latest to be subjected to an attack.
This instance isn’t even the first time a Monet has been targeted. Protestors have previously thrown mashed potatoes at the artist’s Haystacks, while Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was doused in tomato soup as the worlds of art and activism continue to intersect with vandalism the common denominator.
Just last month, two members of the Riposte Alimentaire group bore such umbrage with Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa that it was slathered in pumpkin soup, and the organisation shows no signs of giving up their preferred tactics after Monet’s 1873 canvas Poppies at Argenteuil was targeted.
This time around, no food was involved, but a large adhesive sticker was nonetheless planted on the protective glass covering the valuable painting housed in Paris’ Musée d’Orsay, with the culprit swiftly being apprehended by the authorities.
Footage of the incident shows the perpetrator covering the painting with a sticker of a bleak red landscape, gluing their hand to the wall, and insisting that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put into place,” which has become par for the course with Riposte Alimentaire.
The group’s name quite literally translates as ‘Food Response’, with the environmental activists and supporters of sustainable food production responding to the climate crisis by focusing their attentions on a number of museums across Europe in recent years, with Da Vinci and Monet caught in the crosshairs.
During the aforementioned assault on the Mona Lisa, the protesters asked, “What is more important? Art, or the right to healthy sustainable food?,” neatly surmising their modus operandi. Based on the sheer number of attacks, it likely won’t be the last time Riposte Alimentaire makes its presence felt by using the art world as the backdrop to promoting its values.
Whether it’s food, paint, glue, graffiti, or outright vandalism, constantly attacking famous works of art has become an accepted part of the tactics used by activist groups to try and draw attention to their causes. There are no doubt less aggressive methods of doing so, but hurling tinned goods and slapping stickers on priceless pieces undoubtedly generates more mainstream media attention and visibility than taking to the streets and engaging in standard protest.
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