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Environmental vandals do it again: Activists throw oil on Gustav Klimt painting in Vienna

Activist group "Last Generation" shared on Twitter a video of the attack on Gustav Klimt's painting "Death and Life" in Vienna

November 15, 2022 3:15pm

Updated: November 16, 2022 9:03pm

Activists threw oil on the painting titled "Death and Life" by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) to protest against the world’s inaction against the climate crisis. The activist group "Last Generation" shared the video of the attack on its Twitter account. 

 Initial reports indicate that the painting, on display at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, was protected by glass and has not been damaged. Admission to the Viennese art gallery was free on Tuesday, sponsored by the oil company OMV.

"We have known the problem for 50 years. We must act at once, otherwise, the planet will be destroyed. Stop the destruction of fossil fuels. We are heading towards a climate hell," shouted one of the two activists before being stopped by one of the museum's guards, while his companion stuck himself to the frame of the painting.

"The climate deserves better than this imbecilic caricature," said France's former Green presidential candidate Yannick Jadot after the tomato soup attack on Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" painting in October.

In November, four environmental activists threw pea soup on the painting "The Sower" (1988), also by Vincent Van Gogh, and glued themselves to the wall where it was exhibited in the Palazzo Bonaparte museum in Rome.