the painting “Spring” by Claude Monet doused in soup at the Museum of Fine Arts

This intervention by the Riposte Alimentaire collective took place almost two weeks after a similar action on the painting of “The Mona Lisa” at the Louvre.

Claude Monet’s painting “Spring” was doused with soup on Saturday February 10 afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. The action was claimed by the Riposte Alimentaire collective on its X account and confirmed by the Museum of Fine Arts to the Radio France agency. “At 3:30 p.m., Claude Monet’s painting, “Spring”, was the subject of an act of vandalism”writes the museum. “Two activists from the Riposte Alimentaire group splashed soup on the glass canvas painted in 1872.”

“This spring will be the only one left if we don’t react. What will our future artists paint? ? What will we dream of if there is no more spring ?” chanted the two activists of the collective in front of the board.

Through this action, Riposte Alimentaire wishes to warn of the coming climate and social crisis. The collective asks “the integration of food into the general social security system”.

The two activists arrested

The room where the work was exhibited was evacuated after the incident, the museum said. The national police arrested the two activists. The museum will file a complaint for an act of vandalism. A condition report of the painting will be carried out, followed by a restoration. Sunday February 11, the rooms presenting impressionist works at the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts will be closed to the public.

The mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet said on “the action taken today at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon against a painting by Monet”. He brings his “support for the teams, forced to close part of the museum”. But the elected EELV nevertheless affirms that “faced with the climate emergency, anxiety is legitimate”. “We are responding with resolute action”assures the mayor of Lyon.

Sunday January 28, the collective carried out a similar action at the Louvre by throwing soup on the armored glass protecting “The Mona Lisa”. Two activists were taken into custody. A magistrate suggested they pay a citizen contribution to an association of victims’ families, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.