Environmental activists have spilled orange paint on the ‘Horse and Rider’ statue, by American artist Charles Ray, on display in the streets of France’s capital, Paris.
This act is part of an apparent campaign by climate organizations to attack well-known works of art to denounce climate change and government inaction.
The activists, members of the group Last Renewal, has also put a white T-shirt on the rider of the statue on which could be read the slogan ‘We have 858 days left’, in a clear reference to the period available to avoid a climate catastrophe.
«Climate conferences are not going to save us, everyone knows that. Civil resistance is our only hope (…) Please act, react», has moved from the Last Renewal movement.
For her part, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, denounced that «environmentalist vandalism has gone up a notch» after the attack on Ray’s sculpture. «Thanks to the restorers, who intervened quickly,» she said on Twitter.
Charles Ray is one of the most prominent American sculptors and, since the beginning of the year, his statue has stood in front of the Pinault Museum, in the former Mercantile Exchange in the center of the French capital.
Environmental activists have carried out similar actions in museums around the world in recent months, including in Madrid, where the paintings of ‘La maja desnuda’ and ‘La maja vestida’, works by Francisco de Goya, were attacked.
Other works targeted have been ‘The Sunflowers’, by Vincent van Gogh; ‘The Scream’, by Edvard Munch, or ‘Death and Life’, by Gustav Klimt. Just this Friday, eight kilos of flour were thrown on a car designed by Andy Warhol at an exhibition in Milan.
