German Collector Hasso Plattner Has Temporarily Closed His Museum After Climate Activists Threw Mashed Potatoes at His $111 Million Monet
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Loading... - Nicole Kappas
- 25 Oct 2022
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The Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany—founded by the German businessman and collector Hasso Plattner—has announced it will close until 30 October to evaluate the “risks revealed” after climate activists threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Monet in its collection yesterday. The action is the latest in a slew of attacks on masterpieces at major museums.
“The attack on a work of the Hasso Plattner Collection as well as previous attacks on artworks, among others in the National Gallery in London, have shown that the high international security standards for the protection of artworks in case of activist attacks are not sufficient and need to be adapted,” the museum’s director Ortrud Westheider said in a statement. “We want to use the incident at our institution as an opportunity to establish a productive dialogue with international museum partners and jointly set the course to preserve art and cultural assets for future generations.”
The incident occurred in the early afternoon of October 23, when two activists from the group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Barberini. After throwing the mashed potatoes on Les Meules, or Haystacks, painted by Monet 1890, they crouched beneath the work and glued their hands to the wall, but were quickly detached by police and taken into custody.
In a video posted by the group on Twitter, one of the pair states “people are starving, people are freezing, people are dying.”
“We are in a climate catastrophe and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting,” they said. “You know what I’m afraid of? I’m afraid because science tells us that we won’t be able to feed our families in 2050.”
“Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to make you listen? This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When will you finally start to listen? When will you finally start to listen and stop business as usual?”
The video was posted with the caption: “What is worth more #forall — art or life? Monet loved nature and captured its fragile beauty in his works. Why are many more afraid of one of these images being damaged than of the destruction of our world itself?”
The work in question is on permanent loan to the museum from the private foundation of its patron, Hasso Plattner, who bought the painting at auction in May 2019 for $111 million. The painting is protected by glass and has not been damaged. Read More...
