Advertisement

WATCH: German climate activists pour mashed potatoes on €111 million Monet work

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
WATCH: German climate activists pour mashed potatoes on €111 million Monet work
Screenshot showing eco-activists splashing mashed potatoes on a Claude Monet painting at Potsdam's Barberini Museum. Screenshot: Letztegeneration/AFP

Eco-activists on Sunday splashed mashed potatoes on a Claude Monet painting in a German museum, days after Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in London was hit by tomato soup.

Advertisement

Publishing a video of the action on Twitter, the environmental protest group Last Generation wrote: "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!"

The work, "Les Meules" (Haystacks), hangs in the Museum Barberini in Potsdam and is part of billionaire Hasso Plattner's collection. It is on permanent loan to the museum.

The painting fetched $111 million at an auction in 2019 -- the highest sum paid for a Monet.

Advertisement

Dressed in black with orange vests, the two activists poured the mashed potatoes on the painting before squatting in front of it and sticking a hand each on the wall.

"Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to get you to listen? This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food," said one of the two activists.

Both were taken into custody and are under investigation for damage to property and trespassing, police said.

Watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQlXfL480vk

The painting was protected by glass, the museum said, adding that experts have assessed that it has not suffered any damage.

The work will be back on show from Wednesday, the museum said.

In a similar stunt on October 14th, two environmental protesters hit van Gogh's world-renowned work with tomato soup at the National Gallery in London.

The gallery said the protesters caused "minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed".

READ ALSO: How disasters linked to climate crisis have cost Germany tens of billions

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also