Environmental Activists Fined $30,000 by Vatican Court After Gluing Themselves to Ancient Statue

Laocoön and His Sons, an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums. Courtesy of BEJAN Design

A Vatican court on June 12 handed down a nine-month suspended sentence to two environmental activists who glued themselves to an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest over climate change.

Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, members of the Italian environmental activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation), were convicted of aggravated damage and were also ordered to pay 28,148 euros ($30,390) in restitution and another 1,620 euros ($1,749) in individual fines.

A third activist on trial with them who filmed the incident, Laura Zorzini, was fined 120 euros ($130).

Viero and Goffi went on trial in the Vatican City following the August 2022 protest during which they glued themselves to the base of the Laocoön statue, one of the most important ancient works in the Vatican Museum’s collection, in a bid to pressure the government to bolster its solar and wind power and scrap plans to drill for natural gas and reopen coal mines.

According to the Vatican Museum’s official website, the Laocoön statue was found in 1506 on the Esquiline Hill in Rome and was “immediately identified as the Laocoön described by Pliny the Elder as a masterpiece of the sculptors of Rhodes.”

The statue may date back to 40–30 B.C.

As well as gluing themselves to the statue, Viero and Goffi hung a banner across its base which read “Last Generation: No gas and no coal.”

“Today, thousands of activists are sounding the alarm about the climate, but they too are ignored and repressed,” Last Generation said in a post on Twitter at the time of the protest, alongside a photo of the two activists. “We do not want to be spectators of the collapse of climate and civilization,” it added.

‘Inestimable Damage’

The protest was one of many that Last Generation conducted across Europe last year and came just days after other members of the group glued their hands to the glass window protecting Sandro Botticelli’s painting “Spring,” which is on display in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.

No damage was caused to the painting during that protest, according to officials. Other protests by the activists brought traffic to a halt in Rome and caused widespread disruptions.

In closing arguments on June 12, Floriana Gigli, an attorney for the Vatican City, accused the defendants of exploiting Pope Francis’ well-documented concerns for the environment by causing “inestimable” damage to the statue.

Gigli added that the protesters were aware their actions would damage the statue, noting their decision to glue their hands to its base as opposed to the statue itself, and said they had not expressed regret for the incident and the damage caused.

Viero and Goffi, who were not present in the Vatican criminal tribunal for the verdicts, previously said during a May 24 hearing that they had not intended to damage the statue and had brought their own glue remover with them but that security teams on site ultimately used acetone to unstick them from the artwork.

Responding to the sentencing on June 12, Last Generation said it was “out of proportion and absurd” and that only “a few drops of glue” was used by the protesters, according to ANSA English. The activist group vowed to lodge an appeal.

“The Vatican, one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, has shown all of its hypocrisy with this punishment,” the group said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.