Protestors threw soup at a painting by Monet at The Musee des Beaux-Arts Lyon. This was the most recent action taken by the same campaign organization that staged a similar prank with the Mona Lisa last month.
The 1872 picture was shielded by glass, but the museum stated that it would undergo a thorough examination and repair.
The museum said it would file a complaint for vandalism, adding that two activists were arrested. Riposte Alimentaire (“Food counterattack”) claimed the attack in a posting on X, with a woman identifying herself as 20-year-old Ilona, saying, “We have to act now before it is too late.”
The same group, which calls for a sustainable supply of healthy food for all, also claimed January’s soup attack on the Louvre museum’s Mona Lisa painting, which was also behind glass.
The two activists who attacked Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic work were condemned by a Paris court to carry out volunteer work for a charity association.
Riposte Alimentaire calls itself a “French civil resistance movement which aims to spur a radical societal change for the environment and society”. “We love art,” the movement says, “but future artists will have nothing to paint on a burning planet.”
It wasn’t the first time ecologists and activists had targeted a Monet painting.
In October 2022, protesters from the German branch of Last Generation flung mash at “Les Meules” (The Haystacks) in a museum in Potsdam. It too was protected by glass.
