Climate activists today threw black dye over the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s 1915 masterpiece Death and Life at Vienna’s Leopold Museum, prompting fears it might be permanently damaged.
Two members of the group ‘Last Generation’, a student-led organisation, threw the dye over the painting, before one proceeded to glue himself to the glass protecting the masterpiece. Museum staff are now concerned that the painting has been damaged by the dye. ‘Restorers are working to determine whether the painting protected by glass has been damaged,’ the museum’s spokesman Klaus Pokorny said.
Climate protestors throw dye over Klimt’s masterpiece, Death and Life
Instagram @letztegenerationat
The activists succeeded in bringing the dye inside the museum by hiding it in a hot water bottle under their clothes, according to news outlet AFP. Admission to the museum was free on that day, as part of a day sponsored by the Austrian oil and gas group OMV. The Klimt work depicts death on the left side and a group of partially naked, hugging people on the right side.
In a video shared online by the climate protesters, two men can be seen pouring a black, oily liquid on the famous Klimt painting. One of the activists can be heard shouting, ‘we have known about the problem for 50 years – we must finally act, otherwise the planet will be broken. Stop the fossil fuel destruction. We are racing into a climate hell.’ After the attack, police arrived at the museum and the black liquid was quickly cleaned off the glass protecting the painting.
