Two environmental activists, tried for having doused a Monet painting with soup, were released

Two activists from the environmentalist collective Riposte Alimentaire, who had doused a painting by Claude Monet with soup in February, were released on Tuesday June 18 by the Lyon criminal court. The canvas, under glass, had not suffered any damage.

“The elements constituting the offense have not been established”judged the president of the court in rendering the decision, described as “very good news for freedom of expression” by the defense lawyer. “This affair caused a lot of emotion, it was not won”added Adeline Dubost.

During the hearing at the end of May, the prosecutor requested a two-month suspended prison sentence for the two young women, tried for having “deliberately defaced Claude Monet’s painting spring“, in February at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. The two defense lawyers had requested release in the name of freedom of expression and pleaded the need to act in the face of global warming.

The two activists, aged 20 and 23, told how they were “entries into civil resistance”after having noted that “legal means” to warn about climate change “didn’t work”. In February, they were filmed splashing soup on the board while chanting: “This spring will be the only one left if we don’t react. What will our future artists paint?”