Put up a poster about Monet’s ‘The Poppies’ at the Orsay Museum in Paris

An environmental activist was arrested today after pasting an adhesive poster on the painting ‘The Poppies’ by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet, exhibited in the Orsay Museum in Paris. The action was claimed by the environmental movement Risposte Alimentaire.

In a video spread on social networks by this environmental movement, a woman is seen first sticking an adhesive poster on the painting and then sticking her hand with glue to the wall where the Monet was displayed. The painting was protected by glass so it was not damaged by this action.

Risposte Alimentaire explained that the poster that its activist has pasted over Monet’s work is “a nightmarish version of the same painting, which represents a field of poppies in 2010, devastated by flames and drought.”

“This nightmare scenario in front of you is what awaits us if no alternative is implemented,” shouted the activist who was wearing a T-shirt with the inscription “+4° hell” in French.

«At +4°C in 2100, southern Europe will look like the Sahara, snow will disappear from the Himalayas and northern India’s monsoon will be disrupted, significantly impacting its agriculture. No one will be able to live in that world. However, that is the path we take, especially because of our productivist agricultural system and ecocide,” Risposte Alimentaire warned in a statement, recalling that “agriculture is responsible for 21% of national greenhouse gas emissions.” .

Replaced painting

The painting, after being examined by a museum restorer, has been hung back in its place. ‘The Poppies’ is part of the wonderful exhibition ‘Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism’, which can be seen until July 14 at the Orsay Museum. The museum is going to file a complaint after this environmental action, an official announced to the French press.

The environmental movement Risposte Alimentaire has multiplied its actions in museums in recent months to advocate for the implementation of “a Social Security for Food, following the model of Social Security in 1946” in France.

Last January, Risposte Alimentaire activists threw soup on the glass that protects ‘La Gioconda’ by the Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci, exhibited in the Louvre Museum in Paris. In February, they carried out a similar action against Monet’s painting ‘Spring’, exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. And in May, they posted protest posters next to the painting ‘Freedom Leading the People’ by French painter Eugène Delacroix in the Louvre museum.