LONDON | Activists from the environmental movement Just Stop Oil taped their hands to the frame of a painting depicting The Last Supper at the Royal Academy in London on Tuesday, and dropped paint at the museum to demand an immediate halt to any new oil or gas projects.
The Target work, attributed to Giampietrino, is a life-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting and depicts the biblical scene in which Jesus announces that one of his twelve apostles will betray him.
“When I was teaching, I took my students to big institutions like the Royal Academy. But now it seems unfair to expect them to respect our culture when their government is determined to destroy their future by allowing new oil and gas projects,” said activist and former teacher Lucy Porter, 47, in a press release from Just Stop Oil.
Jessica Agar, another 21-year-old activist and art student, said: “In a world where I have no future, there is no place for me to pursue my calling as an artist.”
It is the fifth time in a week that activists from the organization have carried out such an action in a cultural institution. On Monday they had covered a painting at the National Gallery in London with an image depicting a rural landscape being ravaged by fossil fuels.
After activists from Just Stop Oil briefly entered the British Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone, six people were charged on Tuesday, according to local police.