Activists toss soup at Monet painting in Lyon museum

Activists toss soup at Monet painting in Lyon museum

NEW DELHI: Protesters throw soup at a Monet painting in a museum in southeast France on Saturday. The most recent action by a campaign group that previously carried out a similar stunt on the Mona Lisa last month.

The Musee des Beaux-Arts in France’s third-largest city said in a release that the attack on the Claude Monet’s “Le Printemps” (Spring) occurred at 3:30 pm local time.

Although the 1872 painting was shielded by glass, it will undergo a thorough inspection and restoration, the museum said.

The museum also said that it would file a complaint for vandalism, revealing that two activists were taken into custody.

Riposte Alimentaire (“Food Counterattack”) took responsibility for the attack in a post on X, with a woman identifying herself as 20-year-old Ilona saying, “we have to act now before it is too late.”

The same group, advocating for a sustainable supply of healthy food for everyone, admitted to the soup attack on the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre museum in January. The painting was also protected by glass.

The two individuals responsible for the attack on Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic work were sentenced by a Paris court to perform voluntary work for a charitable organisation.

Riposte Alimentaire describes itself as a “French civil resistance movement which aims to spur a radical societal change for the environment and society”.

“We love art,” the movement says, “but future artists will have nothing to paint on a burning planet.”

In a post on X, Lyon’s mayor, representing an ecological party,said he “regretted the action” but said that “in the face of climate emergencies, anguish is legitimate. We will respond with determined actions.”

This incident isn’t the first time Monet’s paintings have been targeted by environmental activists. In October 2022, members of the German branch of Last Generation hurled mash at “Les Meules” (The Haystacks) in a museum in Potsdam, the painting was safeguarded by glass.

In June 2023, activists in Stockholm applied red paint and glued their hands to the protective glass of another one of Monet’s works, “The Artist’s Garden at Giverny”.

(With input from agencies)

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