Two supporters of the group of self-styled activists ‘Letze Generation‘ (‘Last Generation’) have thrown mashed potatoes at a painting of Claude Monet exposed in the Barberini Museum in Potsdamnear Berlin.
Through a statement, the authors of the artistic attack explain that with this action they join the path opened by two other young women who days ago threw tomato soup against a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery in London. In the statement they have asked the same question that the London activists already asked: “What is worth more, art or life & rdquor ;.
We make this #Monet the stage and the public the audience.
If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society remember that the fossil fuel course is killing us all:
Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting! pic.twitter.com/HBeZL69QTZ
— Letzte Generation (@AufstandLastGen) October 23, 2022
On this occasion, the attacked square is one of the different versions Monet painted of ‘Les Meules’a series of 25 works in which the artist portrayed the changes in the landscape and the different lighting depending on the time of year, just as he saw them in a crop area near his home.
After the aggression, those responsible for the museum are analyzing what damage this work of art, apparently protected by glass, may have suffered, but in parallel, as days ago, the debate on whether or not these types of actions are counterproductive.
“This is cultural barbarism and not a political statement. You are harming your cause”the mayor of Potsdam, the Social Democrat Mike Schubert, denounced on Twitter hours later.
The Environment Minister of the federal state of Brandenburg, the green Ursula Nonnemacher, seconded this idea and said that “The fight against the climate crisis is not strengthened by attacks on famous paintings” and added that, on the contrary, what is needed is a “broad social consensus”, something that this type of intervention distances.
For her part, the regional Minister of Culture, the social democrat Manja Schüle, pointed out on the same social network that with her action the activists “they do a disservice” to the “giant task of climate protection” and “deliberately destroy” cultural treasures”.
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In their defense, the activists maintain that the painting was not damaged during the action, “quite the contrary of the immeasurable suffering that floods, storms and droughts already bring us today as a harbinger of impending catastrophe“.
This work was auctioned at Sotheby’s for 110.7 million dollars, the highest amount paid for a Monet painting. “My heart stopped when I found out about the action,” the museum spokeswoman said.