A new work of art was targeted by environmental activists on Friday 18 November. Protesters threw flour at the BMW M1, a sports car, on display in Milan, Italy, painted in 1979 by American pop art artist Andy Warhol.
Claiming to want “sounding the alarm about climate collapse”, four activists from the group Ultima Generazione (“Last Generation”, in Italian) poured eight kilos of flour on the car exhibited at the Fabbrica del Vapore, a cultural center which is currently devoting a retrospective to the master of pop art. At least two activists then stuck their hands on the floor of the exhibition hall, shouted at by visitors while others tried to clean the stained work, according to images released by the group and online newspapers.
Activists from the Ultima Generazione group had also targeted during this month a work by Van Gogh in Rome and a painting by Gustav Klimt in Vienna. The two works were protected by glass, they were not damaged. The group calls for stricter political measures to combat global warming. His recent actions coincide with the UN climate summit (COP27), which is due to end on Friday.
In recent weeks, other defenders of the environmental cause have multiplied actions around the world targeting works of art, in order to alert public opinion to the subject of global warming. They have, for example, glued their hands to a painting by Goya in Madrid, splashed tomato soup on Sunflowers of Van Gogh, in London, and smeared mashed potatoes on a masterpiece by Claude Monet in Potsdam, near Berlin.