An activist who is associated with the climate protest group On2Ottawa has been arrested after allegedly smearing pink paint onto a painting by Tom Thomson located in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Ottawa Police Service (OPS) told The Epoch Times on Aug. 29 that they were called to the museum at approximately 12 p.m. local time over the incident. An OPS spokesperson said one man was arrested and charged with mischief.
“As the investigation continues, further criminal charges may be laid,” said the OPS, adding they would not confirm the name of the suspect arrested as their investigation is ongoing.
A description of the video says “On2Ottawa Supporter Kaleb throws pink paint at Tom Thomson’s Northern River and glues himself to the ground.”
The video shows the young man walking up to the artwork, smearing it with pink paint, then putting what looks like glue on his hand. He sticks his hand to the floor, sits down, and proceeds to read a note pulled out of his pocket.
“I apologize for this destruction. Are you shocked? You’re probably eager to see law enforcement come and take me to jail,” he said.
The On2Ottawa group describes itself on its website as “ordinary Canadians stepping into nonviolent civil disobedience to get urgent government action on the climate crisis.”
Ottawa Police said two activists were charged with mischief, causing a disturbance, and endangering the lives or safety of public security.
Art Defacement
Earlier this year in March, Victoria police arrested three suspects after “Woolly” the mammoth at the Royal BC Museum was defaced with bright pink paint, also by climate activists from On2Ottawa.
“Laura throws paint at the Royal BC Museum Woolly Mammoth to announce On2Ottawa, a new campaign to mobilize Canadians to go to Ottawa to press government to form a Citizens’ Assembly to kick-start action on the ClimateCrisis,” said the group’s social media post.
On2Ottawa says the stunt used washable paint and was intended to protest “criminal” inaction by the federal government on the “climate emergency.” Three people were arrested in that incident.
In a separate incident last November, two women claiming to be climate activists allegedly vandalized an Emily Carr painting titled “Stumps and Sky” at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Nov. 12, 2022. They later issued a press release on Twitter saying it was to demand an end to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline in Northern B.C.
Two females from a group called Stop Fracking Around were videotaped throwing maple syrup on the glass-encased 1934 painting and then apparently gluing their hands to the gallery wall.
Europe has also been hit with a string of vandalism incidents by climate activists in the last year. In May, German police raided 15 properties across seven regions in a series of raids against climate activists believed responsible for attacking artwork.
The searches were linked to members of the “Letzte Generation” (Last Generation) group and police said suspects between the ages of 22 and 38 years old were being investigated for allegedly forming or supporting a criminal organization.
On Nov. 11, 2022, two climate activists reportedly tried to glue themselves to Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting “The Scream” at the National Museum of Norway in Oslo. The painting was protected by glass, but the vandalism left glue residue on the glass. The museum closed the room where the painting was exhibited to the public as a result of the incident.
Stopp oljeletinga, Norwegian for Stop Oil Exploration, claimed responsibility for the stunt, saying it was “to pressure lawmakers into stopping oil exploration.”
Spokeswoman Astrid Rem told The Associated Press: “There have been lots of similar actions around Europe, they have managed something that no other action has managed: achieve an extremely large amount of coverage and press.”
The International Community of Museums (ICOM) issued a joint statement last November signed by almost 100 museum directors, saying, “In recent weeks, there have been several attacks on works of art in international museum collections. The activists responsible for them severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects, which must be preserved as part of our world cultural heritage.”
The signatories include directors from the Met and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the British Museum and The National Gallery in London, and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.
The U.S.-based Association of Art Museum Directors has noted the rise in activist attacks against valuable art.
“Attacks on works of art cannot be justified, whether the motivations are political, religious, or cultural,” it said on Twitter in November 2022. “Such protests are misdirected and the ends do not justify the means.”
On Oct. 27, 2022, a man apparently tried to glue his head to Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” painting at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, while another man glued his own hand to the wall next to the painting. The two Belgian protesters, who were wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts in the incident, were both sentenced to two months in prison, according to ARTnews.
On Oct. 23, 2022, protestors threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting, which was enclosed in glass, at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany, and then glued themselves to the wall to protest fossil fuels, the Associated Press reported.
Two British protestors from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting in London’s National Gallery on Oct. 14, and then glued themselves to the wall, according to AP. The glass-covered painting was not damaged.
The same group apparently attacked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Arts in July, the Daily Mail reported.
