By Matthias Lukashewitsch, Katja Colmenares and Claudia von Duehren
Adhesive protest always crazy! In the meantime, it is no longer only climate activists who cling to objects! On Sunday, a woman smeared a painting in the Old National Gallery in Berlin – but according to BZ information, she does not belong to the “Last Generation” group.
The woman had glued herself to a wall on the first floor. In the area there is an exhibition of numerous impressionist artists.
A spokesman for the State Museums confirmed the action. A statement said that at around 3:50 p.m. an “individual” “threw artificial blood on the glass-walled painting ‘Clown’ by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the wall covering there and taped himself to the wall next to the painting”. Before that, she would have distributed leaflets in the hall.
The police in the Old National Gallery Photo: Olaf Selchow
The security forces immediately reported the incident to the police. This detached the woman from the wall and took her into custody. The authority did not provide any information on the possible background to the action on Sunday evening.
“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.
And further: “According to the current state of knowledge, the work in the Old National Gallery, which was attacked today, is fortunately not badly damaged, but considerable damage has been done in the exhibition room: paint and adhesive have to be removed from the fabric-covered wall,” said Parzinger. The movement is now being examined in the in-house restoration workshop.
The Impressionist Hall was closed immediately, the rest of the mesum was open until 6 p.m. as planned. The Old National Gallery, which is closed on Mondays anyway, is currently scheduled to reopen on Tuesday as usual.
Climate chaos sticks to Dino
Just a few kilometers away, also in Berlin-Mitte, at about the same time, another adhesive campaign. This time from the climate stickers. At noon, two women attached themselves to a dinosaur in the Berlin Natural History Museum
The dinosaur had its rest for 66 million years. Then, around 2 p.m., two “Last Generation” climate chaotics taped themselves to the handrails supporting the giant skeleton.
The women on the dinosaur skeleton. One of them holds a little boy by the hand Photo: last generation
Unbelievable: one of the women, Caris C. (34) from Leipzig, held a child by the hand! What madness!
And also Solveig Sch. (42) was there. The so-called climate activist was already on record in April 2021 with a similar action in Frankfurt/Main. She had married her eldest daughter Lina Sch. (20) stuck on the street. According to her own statements, she was held in police custody for six days …
45 minutes after the sticking action, the museum’s security personnel alerted the police. The officials detached the glued women from the dinosaur skeleton. “With rapeseed or sunflower oil,” confirmed a police spokeswoman for a BZ request.
Caris C., the mother who held the child’s hand, explains the action: “I’m afraid of forest fires, of water shortages, famine and war.”
The police took the two women into police custody, investigating property damage and trespassing. A police spokeswoman could not say what happened to the child.
Museum Barberini opens again
These are not the first attacks on valuable cultural assets! Just last Sunday, two climate chaotic people stuck themselves to a 111-million-euro monet in Potsdam’s Barberini Museum entitled “Getreidestack” (1890). Previously, they had soiled the work with mashed potatoes!
The museum is scheduled to reopen on Monday. The house had been closed since last Tuesday because security measures were to be discussed with the lenders for the current surrealism exhibition.
The activists of the group “Last Generation” in front of the smeared Monet in Potsdam’s Barberini Museum Photo: Uncredited/Last Generation/AP/dpa
In the future, the exhibition rooms can only be visited after handing in jackets and bags at the cloakroom or in the lockers.
In recent months there have been numerous attacks by climate activists on works of art in museums.
► Three climate activists were arrested in The Hague after a violent attack on the painting “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer in the Maruitshuis art museum.
► And on Saturday, climate protection activists in Munich stuck to a sports car in a BMW car exhibition.
► There are also daily blockages in Berlin’s commuter traffic.