Activists use Botticelli painting to protest – 02/13/2024 – Illustrated

Activists from the environmental movement Ultima Generazione held a protest this Tuesday (13) at the Gallerie degli Uffizi, in Florence.

Protesters covered Sandro Botticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus” with images of natural disasters caused by climate change. The records are from a Tuscan town devastated by floods last year.

The photographs, however, were not pasted directly onto the canvas, as a glass film protects the work. This is not the first protest at museums in Europe.

In January, two activists threw soup at the painting of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

The work is located under armored glass and was not directly affected. At the protest, the two women spoke about sustainable eating after invading an isolated area. They also displayed a t-shirt with the words “Food Response”.

In 2022, the same painting was attacked by a visitor at the Louvre. A man, disguised with a wig and a cap, in a wheelchair, threw something that looked like a pie at the construction site. The throw, however, did not hit the painting, and only left a patch of white cream in the area.

In October of the same year, it was the turn of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers” to be the target of attacks. At the time, activists threw a packet of tomato soup at the painting to attract attention and pressure the UK government to end the use of fossil fuels.