PARIS: A climate activist was arrested on Saturday for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global warming, a police source said.

The action by the woman, a member of “Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Response) — a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production — is the latest in a string of protests aimed at drawing attention to global warming by defacing art.

In a video posted on X, the woman — introducing herself as a “concerned citizen” — is seen placing a blood-red poster over the “Coquelicots” (Poppy Field) painting by Claude Monet, a French Impre­ssionist artist. In the video she said of the poster covering Monet’s art that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place”.

She added: “At four degrees, we can expect hell”, a reference to forecasts saying that Earth’s temperature could rise by 4 Celsius over pre-industrial levels by 2050. Monet’s painting, completed in 1873, shows people with umbrellas strolling in a blooming poppy field and is part of a

special Musee d’Orsay show called “Paris 1874, Inventing Impressionism” that features 130 works by 31 artists.

A restoration expert examined the painting which suffered no permanent damage, the Musee d’Orsay said, adding that it had been put back on the wall. “The exhibition is entirely accessible to the public again,” a spokesperson said. The museum would file a criminal complaint, the spokesperson added.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2024