Top museums condemn climate protests

The world's top museums have taken a public stance against the trend of targeting artworks as a means of protesting fossil fuels. They said activists don't know the true fragility of the works and risk forcing museums to close their doors.

The world's top art museums, led by the Prado in Madrid, issued a joint statement Thursday condemning the recent spate of protests that target priceless artworks in the name of environmental protest.

Experts say that activists, who have targeted dozens of artworks around the world recently, "severely underestimate" the damage they could do to the objects they attack.

"The activists responsible [for the attacks] severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects, which must be preserved as part of our world cultural heritage," according to a statement.

More than 90 museum directors, including those at the Guggenheim in New York, the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence, joined the Prado in its statement.

Maintaining open museums as 'free spaces for social communication'

"As museum directors entrusted with the care of these works, we have been deeply shaken by their risky endangerment. We will continue to advocate for direct access to our cultural heritage. And we will maintain the museum as a free space for social communication," said a statement of support.

Activists from groups such as Just Stop Oil, Last Generation and Extinction Rebellion have used disruptive protests to make headlines for their cause, of late, increasingly by targeting priceless works of art in leading museums around the globe.

Though their methods have been severely criticized, environmental protesters have not yet done much damage while dousing paintings with soup or mashed potatoes and then glueing themselves to their frames or the walls they hang on.

Moreover, the protests, which target more well-protected works (mainly those under glass), have been repeatedly featured in newspapers and television programs around the world since the high-visibility campaign aimed at forcing politicians to enact change began.

js/aw (AFP, dpa)