Famous ‘The Scream’ painting targeted by climate activists
Norwegian police said two climate activists tried in vain on Friday to stick to Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece”The Screamin an Oslo museum and no damage was reported to the painting of a waif-like figure appearing to scream.
Police said they were alerted by the National Museum of Norway and have three people under their “control”. A third person filmed the couple trying to cling to the board, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.
The museum said the room where the painting under glass is displayed “has been emptied of the public and closed” and will reopen as soon as possible. The rest of the museum remained open.
Police said there was glue residue on the glass backing.
Video of the incident showed museum guards holding two activists, one of them shouting “I’m screaming for the people who are dying”. Another shouted ‘I scream when lawmakers ignore science’ as someone shielded ‘The Scream’.
A police vehicle is parked in front of the National Museum where activists from the ‘Stopp Oljeletinga’ organization attempted to stick to the frame of Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’, in Oslo, Norway. (Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Environmental activists from the Norwegian organization ‘Stop oljeletinga’ – Norwegian for Stop Oil Exploration – were behind the stunt, saying they “wanted to pressure lawmakers to stop oil exploration”. Norway is a major offshore oil and gas producer.
It was the latest episode in which climate activists have targeted famous paintings in European museums.
“We’re campaigning against ‘Scream’ because it might be Norway‘s most famous painting,” Astrid Rem, spokeswoman for the Norwegian band, told The Associated Press. “There have been many similar actions across Europe. They have achieved something that no other action has achieved: to obtain extremely important coverage and press.
Two Belgian activists who targeted Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer in a Dutch museum in October were sentenced to two months in prison. The painting was undamaged and was put back on its wall a day later.
Earlier this month, climate protesters launched mashed potatoes in front of a painting by Claude Monet in a German museum and a similar demonstration took place in London, where protesters threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery. In these two cases, the paintings were not damaged either.
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