The Australian Police assured that the glue with which they adhered to the works “was not very good”, so the activists managed to leave the gallery before they could be arrested.
Two environmental activists adhered this Wednesday with glue to the famous work of art ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ by American artist Andy Warhol at the National Gallery in Canberra to demand that the Australian Government stop subsidizing fossil fuels.
A spokesman for the Australian Capital Territory Police, which includes Canberra, said in a telephone conversation with EFE that the glue with which they were adhered “was not very good”and that the activists managed to leave the gallery before they could be arrested.
Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies is highlighting the danger of capitalism by glueing onto Andy Warhol. Art depicting consumerism gone mad. While Australians starve, Government pays $22,000 a minute to subsidize fossil fuels. #StopFFS #Auspol #Cop27 #ClimateCrisis #FireproofAustralia pic.twitter.com/acSbRO1mWs
— Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies (@stopffsubsidies) November 9, 2022
The group Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies, which has declared itself responsible for the protest, published on Twitter on Wednesday the video in which two people dressed in wigs appear painting on the glass that protects Warhol’s work, writing slogans such as “climate crisis” either “artistic protest”.
This group, which accuses the Canberra Executive of giving the fossil fuel industry some 11.6 billion local dollars ($7.545 million), demanded that Australia cut carbon dioxide emissions and stop approving new coal and gas projects.
“Let COP27 count!”, the Australian group of activists claimed in another tweet, whichsecure being part of the worldwide A22 Networkwhich promotes civil disobedience on the occasion of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), which is being held between November 6 and 18 in Egypt.
Confirming the incident against the work, which dates from 1962, the National Gallery of Australia indicated in a statement sent to EFE that this institution “does not wish to promote these actions and will not comment further” in this regard, since the protest is being investigated by the country’s police authorities.
The incident this Wednesday in Australia, one of the largest polluters per capita in the world, ands part of a series of recent protests by climate activistsas well as the adherence with glue to the frames of the paintings of ‘The dressed maja’ and ‘The naked maja’ by Goya in the Prado Museum in Madrid on November 5.
Some actions that have also taken place andn London with ‘The Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Goghas well as in Rome, where environmentalists chose to throw puree at the painting ‘The Sower’ made by the Dutch artist in 1888, among other artistic works.
These protests, which have emerged strongly this year, claim compliance with the Paris Agreement to limit the increase in global warming levels to below 1.5 degrees average temperature relative to pre-industrial levels.