Climate activists sometimes don’t give things a second thought…
Five environmental protestors from the Just Stop Oil group have been arrested in the UK after gluing their hands to the border of a copy of Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper painting.
The reason behind the protests was to stop the UK from issuing new oil and gas licenses.
Here’s the moment they glued their hands:
Protesters spray-painted the words “No New Oil” on an exhibition wall at the Royal Academy in London on Tuesday, before gluing themselves to a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper on display there. pic.twitter.com/eF6VaJjf4R
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 5, 2022
Oil protesters glue their hands to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting at Royal Academy
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 5, 2022
The Daily Mail had more on the story:
Activists from Just Stop Oil including a bushcraft instructor caused chaos at another art gallery today after gluing themselves to the frame of a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Today, the activists entered The Collection Gallery at the Royal Academy just after 11.30am, and glued their hands to the base of the painting. Security quickly responded and cleared visitors away before trying to prise the activists off the artwork. Police arrived nearly an hour later and arrested them on suspicion of criminal damage.
Just Stop Oil named the three other protesters as 21-year-old Jessica Agar, an art student from Hereford; Tristan Strange, 40, a community organiser from Swindon; and 47-year-old Lucy Porter, a former teacher from Leeds.
Ms Agar, who has volunteered with the RSPB, and Ms Porter were both involved in a demonstration with XR at Royal Ascot just last month which saw activists shackle themselves to the running rail – while Ms Agar was also part of an XR protest on Waterloo Bridge three years ago in April 2019 that brought traffic chaos to London.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries hit out at the activists, saying on Twitter this afternoon: ‘These attention seekers aren’t helping anything other than their own selfish egos. Disrupting access to our fabulous cultural assets and putting them at risk of damage is unacceptable. These protestors should be removed and held responsible for the damage and disruption.’
"No New Oil" has been spray-painted below the artwork, while five protesters have glued their hands to its frame at the London gallery https://t.co/QLBFQ7ObN8
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 5, 2022
This isn’t the first time they protested either:
Here’s the group gluing themselves to another painting:
One of the green protestors who glued herself to John Constable's The Hay Wain has been branded an eco-hypocrite after it emerged she often flies off on exotic holidays and has racked up tens of thousands of air miles. https://t.co/fULajsyabg
— Toby Young (@toadmeister) July 4, 2022
Yahoo News got the scoop too:
Five Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested after gluing themselves to a full-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at the Royal Academy in London.
It comes after two Just Stop Oil eco-warriors glued themselves to the frame of a Constable painting The Hay Wain, at the National Gallery on Monday night, and is the fifth time in the last week that protesters have glued themselves to a major artwork.
The group is calling on the Government to halt new oil and gas licenses in the UK.
In a statement, Just Stop Oil said it’s “calling for the government to commit to immediately halt new oil and gas licenses in the UK and for the directors, employees and members of art institutions to join the Just Stop Oil coalition in peaceful civil resistance”.
Four protesters sat on a bench under the full-scale copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, attributed to one of his pupils Giampietrino, on Tuesday.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!