Two activists on Wednesday smeared red paint and then glued their hands to the protective glass on “The Artist’s Garden at Giverny,” a painting by the French Impressionist Claude Monet on display in an exhibition at Stockholm’s National Museum, a video released by the organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) shows.
The museum’s press office confirmed the incident to CNN.
“In the afternoon of June 14 around 2:30 p.m. (8:30aET) an action was carried out at the National Museum in Stockholm. Two people made handprints with some kind of paint on an artwork by the artist Monet in the exhibition ‘The Garden – Six Centuries of Art and Nature’ and then glued themselves to the glass,” the museum’s press office said.
“The painting, which is encased in glass, is now being inspected by museum conservators to determine whether there is any damage,” the press office continued.
Police were called to the scene and arrested two women, the Stockholm Region police said in a press release.
“The crime is currently classified as aggravated vandalism. It is unclear whether more people than the two arrested are involved in the incident, but a number of people have been checked and the police will, among other things, review the course of events with the help of the museum’s surveillance cameras,” the release said.
“We distance ourselves from actions where art or cultural heritage are put at risk of damage. Cultural heritage has great symbolic value, and it is unacceptable to attack or destroy it, for any purpose whatsoever,” Per Hedström, the National Museum’s acting director general, said.
