Now eco-zealots target Monet masterpiece in environmental protest, splashing soup over Le Printemps just weeks after copycat art attack on Da Vinci's Mona Lisa in The Louvre

Climate activists have hurled soup at a Monet painting in a French museum yesterday after pulling a similar stunt on the Mona Lisa last month.

The Musee des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France’s third largest city, said in a statement that the attack on Claude Monet’s ‘Le Printemps’ (Spring) took place at 3.30pm local time on Saturday.

The 1872 painting was protected by glass, but will still undergo a close inspection and restoration, the museum said. The museum said it would file a complaint for vandalism, adding that two activists were arrested.

Riposte Alimentaire (‘Food counterattack’) claimed the attack in a posting on X, with a woman identifying herself 20-year-old Ilona saying ‘we have to act now before it is too late.’

The same group, which calls for a sustainable supply of healthy food for all, also claimed January’s soup attack on the Louvre museum’s Mona Lisa painting, which was also behind glass.

Activists Ilona (left) and Sophie (right) from climate group Riposte Alimentaire took responsibility for the attack on Claude Monet’s ‘Le Printemps’

The 1872 painting ‘Le Printemps’ (pictured) was protected by glass, but will still undergo a close inspection and restoration, the museum said

Riposte Alimentaire (‘Food counterattack’) claimed the attack in a posting on X, with a woman identifying herself 20-year-old Ilona (pictured) saying ‘we have to act now before it is too late’

Activists Ilona and Sophie asked bystanders in the museum after yesterday’s soup attack: ‘This spring will be the only one we have left if we don’t react. What will our future artists paint? What will we dream of if there is no more spring?’

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

In a posting about the Monet splashing on X, Lyon’s mayor, who is from the green party, said he ‘regretted the action’ but added that ‘in the face of climate emergencies, anguish is legitimate. We will respond with determined actions.’

Riposte Alimentaire’s activists Sasha, 24, and Marie-Juliette, 63, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Mona Lisa on January 28 and asked the shocked crowd after they threw the soup: ‘What is more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?’

The group later said the soup throwing marked the ‘start of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand… of the social security of sustainable food’.

Riposte Alimentaire calls itself a ‘French civil resistance movement which aims to spur a radical societal change for the environment and society’.

Eco-morons hurled soup at the bullet-proof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre in Paris on January 28 (pictured)

The duo stand in front of the splattered artwork with one revealing a white t-shirt with the words ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ (‘Food counterattack’)

This is the moment the eco zealots hurl tomato soup at the Mona Lisa

According to its website, Riposte Alimentaire is demanding the French government ensure food security in the country, including the distribution of ‘food cards’ holding €150 ‘per month per person to buy approved food products.’

The website also explains that the group is an offshoot of a larger climate activist collective called ‘Last Renovation’ – which is part of a campaign that has seen protesters target historic landmarks, artwork and commuters across Europe.

Riposte Alimentaire’s website says the group ‘was built as a result of the Last Renovation campaign, which in 2022 and 2023 led actions throughout France to demand an energy renovation plan for buildings.

‘Strengthened by a community of civil resistance which obtained a first victory, the Last Renovation campaign was transformed to tackle an even more ambitious and systemic subject: Social Security for Sustainable Food,’ it adds.

But the page also explains that Riposte Alimentaire and Last Generation are part of an even larger collective of activists, who fall under the ‘A22’ network.

‘France and 11 other countries around the world are coordinating their efforts to take, at home, the first urgent and essential step to truly implement the necessary transformation of our societies,’ the website says, before listing its other groups.

Activists under the A22 umbrella have poured black dye into Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain while calling for the end of fossil fuels. Others have dyed Venice’s famous canals green.

Last Generation protesters have also blocked busy roads during rush hour in some of Europe’s busiest cities, forcing locals into dragging them out of the way.

A22 also includes Just Stop Oil, a British group which has pulled similar stunts in the UK, much to the chagrin of politicians and the public.

In October 2022, two activists from the Just Stop Oil group grabbed headlines when they splashed tomato soup over the glass protecting Dutch master Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London.

At the time, they complained that art lovers were more concerned with paintings than the planet.

Last year, climate activists waded into the waters of Rome’s world-famous Trevi Fountain and poured in a black liquid to symbolise oil

Extinction Rebellion activists turned Venice’s canals green in December in a protest over what the group said at the time was a lack of progress at climate talks during Cop-28 in Dubai

Three environmental activists attached themselves to the glass cover of the iconic renaissance painting in the Sala Botticelli of the Uffizi Gallery in Italy in July 2022

Activists from Last Generation threw flour over a car painted by the Pop Art icon that was on display in Milan’s Fabbrica del Vapore art centre, in November 2022

The website also lists groups in Sweden, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada and Austria.

In its defence of the Mona Lisa stunt, Riposte Alimentaire referred to a survey of 996 people last year by the Ipsos polling group that found that one in three French people were not always able to afford enough healthy food for three meals a day.

Member Till Van Elst said the group wanted the state to allow people to buy selected food items at reduced rates through a specialised social security card. Under the scheme, democratic assemblies would choose the food to be subsidised.

‘We want citizens to really be able to… decide what is in their plates,’ he told AFP.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati led criticism of the soup attack.

‘The Mona Lisa, as our heritage, belongs to future generations. No cause can justify targeting it,’ she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Italy in particular has seen several stunts, prompting the country to bring in a law that would see activists fined up to 50,000 euros for forms of protest.

Last year, climate activists waded into the waters of Rome’s world-famous Trevi Fountain and poured in a black liquid to symbolise oil.

‘Our country is dying,’ they shouted after unfurling a banner, as tourists visiting the monument took photos, cheered and booed.

While the group said the liquid was carbon based and would not damage the fountain, Rome’s mayor said regardless, the city would have to throw away the 300,000 litres of water circulating the Trevi Fountain and replace it.

The group has also hurled paint at Milan’s famous La Scala opera house, food at the glass protecting iconic paintings, and sprayed the Italian Senate with orange paint.

In October 2022, two activists (pictured) from the Just Stop Oil group grabbed headlines when they splashed tomato soup over the glass protecting Dutch master Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London

Environmental activists from Just Stop Oil slow march from Trafalgar Square in central London as they continue their latest round of protest actions against fossil fuels in London, United Kingdom on November 20, 2023

Its members have also blocked traffic, infuriating motorists.

Several videos have shown the activists sitting across the middle of busy roads, causing long traffic jams during morning and afternoon rush hours.

This has invariably led to members of the public taking matters into their own hands, ripping banners out of the activists’ hands and dragging them off the road.

In October irate motorists repeatedly kicked and dragged climate protesters blocking traffic in Milan.

Around 20 ‘Ultima Generazione’ – translated as Last Generation – activists blocked a road, drawing the anger of several drivers left stuck in the resulting traffic.

Footage showed several activists sitting on a crossing point over the multi-lane road at a busy intersection, causing chaos for drivers during rush hour by linking hands and holding up an orange climate emergency banner.

Several drivers, furious at the protesters for blocking their way, got out of the cars and banded together to carry them off the road in shocking scenes caught on video.

Other climate activist groups have also been active in Italy.

In December, protesters from Extinction Rebellion used a dye to turn Venice’s famous Grand Canal green, in protest over what they said at the time was a lack of progress at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai .

Activists from the group were seen dangling from the Rialto Bridge over the canal with the aid of hard hats and climbing ropes, while displaying a banner that read: ‘COP28: While the government talks, we are hanging by a thread.’

And in 2022, Italian eco-zealots glued their hands to Botticelli’s masterpiece Primavera at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

That same year, 11 activists threw flour over a car painted by Andy Warhol that was on display in Milan’s Fabbrica del Vapore art centre.