Three activists from an environmental group were arrested Friday after throwing glue at Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” at the National Museum in Oslo, in protest of oil activity in Norway.
The action took place on the same day that the International Council of Museums (ICOM) published a notice warning of the danger these actions pose to works of art, not forgetting the threats that “climate change” also “poses to cultural heritage”, and in the same week that representatives of about 100 museum institutions from around the world underlined the fragility of the pieces in their custody.
Regarding Friday’s action in Oslo, the Norwegian police on their social networking page Twitter reported that the guards of the museum detained the young women and alerted the authorities after they threw glue on the painting, which was not damaged as it is in a glass closet. However, the box was compromised.
Two of the activists clung to the frame while the third filmed the scene, screaming “There will be no screaming when people die” and “There will be no screaming when politicians ignore science,” the NTB news agency reported.
The young women belong to the environmental activist group Stopp Oljetinga (Stop Oil Activity/Stop Oil Activity), which said in a statement that the activists’ action was intended to warn people and put pressure on the Norwegian government to change the policies that are now can already be changed. Western Europe’s largest oil and gas exporter.
A spokeswoman for the group told public broadcaster NRK that they chose Munch’s most famous work, an iconic expressionist painting, to draw attention to itself, without the intention of damaging it.
Norwegian Culture Minister Anette Trettebergstuen responded to the incident, saying that “this is an unacceptable form of action”: “While many of us support the climate struggle as one of the most important struggles of our time, attacking priceless art does not help in any way the cause”.
Similar actions have been taken in recent weeks by climate change activists around the world, targeting a Claude Monet painting in a museum near Berlin, Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London, Goya’s “Majas” in Madrid and Pablo Picasso’s “Massacre in Korea”, exhibited in Melbourne, Australia.
Works by Andy Wharol, Vermeer and Botticelli were also the target of protests.
In a joint statement this week, representatives from nearly 100 institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the British Museum in London and the Louvre Museum in Paris, warned of the risks posed by these climate protests to works of precious art. .
“In recent weeks, there have been multiple attacks on works of art in international museum collections. The activists responsible for the actions seriously underestimate the vulnerability of these irreplaceable objects, which must be preserved as part of our world cultural heritage”write the representatives of museums and art galleries, quoted this Friday by the newspaper The Washington Post🇧🇷
The group of 92 ICOM representatives also stated in a message published on its website this Friday that museum directors are increasingly “frustrated” and “deeply shocked” by the danger these actions pose to art.
Responding to the museums’ coordinated statement this week about the risk to the works, a spokesperson for UK climate action group Just Stop Oil – which, among other things, had thrown tomato soup at the “Sunflowers” painting – said this Friday to Washington message that “art and public galleries are also places of contention”. “Ending new oil and gas is a battle to be fought inside and outside the galleries”.
Following the recent climate activism actions in museums, ICOM recognized and shared “the concerns of museums about the safety of collections and the concerns of climate activists in the face of an environmental catastrophe threatening life on Earth”🇧🇷
“ICOM sees the choice of museums as the setting for these climate protests as proof of their symbolic power and relevance in discussions around the climate crisis”reads in the ICOM statement that recalls “the role of museums as key players in initiating and supporting climate action with their communities” and commends the commitment to this mission, which is reflected in educational programs, special exhibits, community outreach, and research.
ICOM draws attention to the impact these demonstrations can have on the work of museum professionals and volunteers who strive to promote and protect “valuable heritage for public use”.
“Reaching the full transformative potential that museums have for sustainable development”ICOM wants museums to be seen as allies in responding to the common threat of climate change, the statement reads.
As political and civil society leaders gather in Sharm El-Sheik for the COP27 global climate conference, ICOM “recalls the need for bold action to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming. Climate change poses a growing threat to cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, museums and their collections – from natural disasters to increasing difficulties in maintaining of the state of repair due to the extreme climate”concludes.
In Portugal, museum directors approached by the Lusa agency last week expressed concern over environmental action cases, which they condemned for intensifying surveillance of cultural heritage in their custody.
At stake is “the very democratic nature” of museums, which brought art into the public space and made it “citizen collective property”, as they underlined in this work released by the Lusa agency.
Source: DN
