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Two activists affiliated with the Spanish climate emergency group Futuro Vegetal were arrested at the Museo Naval in Madrid last Sunday, October 12, after throwing biodegradable red paint over a historic painting depicting Christopher Columbus. The group scheduled its action on Spain’s National Day, also known as Día de la Hispanidad, which commemorates the date on which Columbus arrived on the island of Guanahani in 1492.
To Futuro Vegetal, whose mission is to remediate environmental harm and water diversion by ending reliance on livestock farming, October 12 signifies “centuries of oppression, exploitation, and genocide against the indigenous population of Abya Yala,” the group said in a statement on Instagram, using an Indigenous Guna term for parts of the Americas. Futuro Vegetal decried any celebration of Columbus’s legacy, calling for an end to the “glorification of colonization and genocides, both historical and current.”
Museo Naval did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic‘s inquiries. Museum sources informed the Spanish news outlet El Mundo that the red paint had seeped through the cracks in the artwork’s varnished surface and into the weave of the canvas and damaged the painting’s gilt frame.
The work’s restoration is ongoing, and the museum is reportedly collaborating with specialists from the nearby Museo del Prado.
The demonstrators — both women — splattered paint across the left side of José Garnelo’s “Primeros homenajes del Nuevo Mundo a Colón” (1892) at the Museo Naval around 2pm. They were dragged away from the artwork by museum security and informally detained ahead of the National Police’s arrival, questioning, and subsequent arrest.
Museum visitors can be heard criticizing the activists in video footage of the action, telling them to “shut up” and accusing them of being “in a cult.”
A spokesperson for Futuro Vegetal told Hyperallergic via WhatsApp that both activists remain in police custody. Spain’s National Police did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic‘s request for confirmation.
Futuro Vegetal’s most recent action aligns with dozens of similar climate emergency interventions at arts and culture institutions worldwide. Courts are cracking the whip on this trending form of activism, with judges doling out months- and years-long prison sentences to demonstrators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Exasperated with climate activists, Italy has moved to impose five-figure fines on anyone who vandalizes cultural heritage across the nation.
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