LONDON (AFP) – Climate protesters in the United Kingdom (UK) smashed the glass cover of the Rokeby Venus painting by Spanish artist Diego Velazquez at London’s National Portrait Gallery, in the latest protest against fossil fuels.
Two Just Stop Oil protesters in their 20s attacked the painting that suffragette Mary Richardson slashed in 1914, the group said in a statement.
“At around 10.45am Hanan, 22, and Harrison, 20, used safety hammers to smash the glass covering the Rokeby Venus,” said the group, which is demanding a halt to all new oil and gas projects in the UK. “They then addressed the gallery by saying, ‘Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words. It is time to Just Stop Oil’.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that two Just Stop Oil activists had been arrested for criminal damage. “The glass protecting a painting at the National Gallery has been vandalised,” it said, adding that more activists were slow marching on Whitehall road.
