Two activists have poured oil on Gustav Klimt’s (1862-1918) painting Death and Life at the Leopold Museum in Vienna to denounce inaction against the climate crisis.
The first information indicates that the painting was protected by glass and would not have been damaged, although the museum asks for some time to evaluate what happened in detail.
The “Last Generation” group shared a video of the protest on their Twitter account. A person also stuck to the glass that protects the work during the protest.
On the occasion of a regional holiday, admission to the Leopold was free, sponsored by the oil company OMV and, despite strict controls, the activists managed to introduce the liquid into a hot water bottle.
Another of the activists shouted after throwing the oil on the painting: “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 headed for climate hell,” he added, describing new oil and gas drilling as a death sentence for humanity.
Five days ago, two other activists from the same group glued undamaged dinosaur fossils to the Natural History Museum in Vienna to criticize the climate destruction caused by hydrocarbons.
“Faced with the remains of the extinct giants, they demand a policy of survival, instead of the continuous destruction of our livelihoods,” explained the environmental group, very active in Austria and Germany, in a statement.
