A Van Gogh painting on show in Rome was behind glass and thus not damaged by soup thrown by climate activists Friday, the head of the exhibition's organising company told ANSA.
"We were expecting it, (there has been) no damage but it is a useless gesture," said Arthemisia President and Managing Director Iole Siena.
"We had been expecting it even before the show opened, and we had had several meetings with Carabinieri and museum chiefs...
"We stopped everyone from bringing in bags and backpacks and for that reason they could only do very little." Iole went on: "When the protesters got up close to the work one of them took out a little tin can she had hidden down her trousers.
"Nothing bad happened to the picture and the girls then glued themselves to the wall under the painting with superglue. We didn't even close the show, but only the room, because the restorer had to assess possible damage. The frame will have to be cleaned, and the room will probably reopen this evening.
"These are demonstrative stunts that I condemn with the greatest severity, even though they are useless gestures. They even told the media they were going to do it.
"Luckily up till now they have only targeted works protected by glass but some copycat might emulate them with unprotected works and cause serious damage. These are blatant stunts that don't achieve anything and damage themselves in the collective consciousness".
The three female climate activists threw vegetable soup on Van Gogh's The Sower in Rome's Palazzo Bonaparte museum, before gluing themselves to the wall and shouting slogans against the use of carbon fuels and about the existential threat posed by climate change.
The Sower is on loan from the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Dutch town of Otterlo for an exhibition of Van Gogh works in the former Napoleonic residence in the Italian capital.
The three young women who carried out the attack are set to be cited for damaging the cultural patrimony.
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