Climate Activists Deface Monet Painting at Swedish Museum

A painting by French artist Claude Monet was smeared with “some kind of paint” at Sweden’s National Museum Wednesday, part of a protest by two climate activists. The women were detained after they smeared the substance and then glued themselves to the frame of The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, the Associated Press reported. Spokesperson Hanna Tottmar confirmed the artwork was encased in glass and “is now being examined by the museum’s conservators to see if any damage has occurred.” In video from the incident, one of the women, identified as Emma Johanna Fritzdotter, says: “The situation is urgent. As a nurse, I refuse to watch. The pandemic was nothing compared to the climate collapse. It’s about life or death. People won’t just die from heat stroke. New diseases will spread, and we cannot even imagine the extent of this.” The Restore Wetlands activist group, who claimed responsibility, said it hoped the incident would force the Swedish government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Vincent van Gough's Sunflowers copped a can of tomato juice in October during a similar protest, while in July, activists from the protest group Just Stop Oil glued themselves to the frames of famous works of art in numerous London galleries.