Despite tightened security measures, climate activists have once again stuck to a museum picture. The picture gallery in Berlin was affected on Thursday. The State Museums confirmed the action. The painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was attacked. According to the police, the women were removed from the frame and their personal details recorded.
According to dpa information, two activists stuck to the frame of the painting. The alarm system was triggered. The young women had a poster of the “Last Generation” movement with them, and on their T-shirts it said “Stop the fossil madness”. The area was cordoned off, the police were on site, according to the museum. There was no information about possible damage.
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After the recent incidents, museums and supervisory staff were also made more aware, said Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in a first reaction from the dpa in Berlin. “There is never 100% security.”
The choice of the painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” was justified by the “Last Generation”. “In a world two or four degrees hotter, there will be no safe haven,” it said in a statement.
Cranach’s painting shows Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, who are resting exhausted as they flee, surrounded by a flock of angels. In the message, activist Lina Eichler justified the attack: She stuck to the painting “to fight for a safe future for us and all children”.
Berlin’s Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) said on Twitter: “I strongly condemn today’s action by activists of the ‘last generation’ in the Berlin Picture Gallery. Significant damage can be assumed by sticking it to the frame of one of the most important paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder.”
The managing director of the German Cultural Council, Olaf Zimmermann, had already condemned the first actions on Thursday. “As much as I can understand the desperation of climate activists, I say clearly that sticking the actions to the frames of famous works of art is clearly the wrong way to go. The risk of damage to the works of art is very high,” it said in a statement.
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On Wednesday, two climate activists glued themselves to the frame of a large painting in Frankfurt’s Städel. On Tuesday there was a similar action in the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden.
This year, climate activists of the “last generation” have already blocked hundreds of streets nationwide. The activists are demanding that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) do more to expand renewable energies.
