Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters added their image of an “apocalyptic vision of the future” to the painting, which depicted an old car dumped in front of the mill, two planes, and a washing machine in the back of the cart.
Two climate change protesters attached their image of an “apocalyptic vision of the future” to the frame of a John Constable painting, The Hay Wain.
An old car was dumped in front of the mill, and two airplanes and a washing machine were in the back of the cart in the alternative vision of the rural Suffolk farm.
On Monday afternoon, Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters stormed the National Gallery in London, forcing visitors, including a class of 11-year-old schoolchildren, to flee the room where the painting hangs.
Eben Lazarus, 22, and Hannah Hunt, 23, both from Brighton, were identified by JSO as music students.
They demanded an end to new North Sea oil and gas licenses.
Wearing matching branded t-shirts, the two activists crossed a rope barrier and pasted the alternative printed image over the painting.
Before security cleared the room, they each attached one hand to the picture frame and crouched below, loudly voicing their concerns about the climate.
Mr. Lazarus, who describes himself as an art enthusiast, stated: “Art is significant. It should be preserved for future generations to see, but what good is art if there is no food?
“What good is art when there is no water? What good is art when billions of people are in pain and suffering?”
The Hay Wain, painted in 1821, is one of the gallery’s most popular paintings, depicting a rural Suffolk scene of a wagon returning to the fields across a shallow ford for another load.
“We have stuck a reimagined version of the Hay Wain that demonstrates our path to disaster,” Lazarus explained.
The disruption will end when the UK government makes a meaningful statement that it will end new oil and gas licenses,” Hunt later said.
She continued, saying: “I’m here because our government intends to license 40 new oil and gas projects in the United Kingdom over the next few years.
As a result, they are complicit in pushing the world towards an unlivable climate and the deaths of billions of people over the next few decades.
You can forget about our “green and pleasant land” when further oil extraction causes widespread crop failures, forcing us to fight for food. Finally, new fossil fuels are a doomed government project.
“Yes, there is glue on the frame of this painting, but there is blood on our government’s hands.”
According to a National Gallery spokesman, the conservation team discovered minor damage to the frame and disruption to the surface of the varnish on the painting, which has both been repaired.
“At approximately 14.25 on Monday, officers were called to a protest taking place inside the National Gallery involving two people,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.
It is the latest protest by the group, which has allegedly targeted a Scottish art gallery and Sunday’s British Grand Prix in the past week.
