The masterpieces targeted by climate activists

At the end of August, two men in Munich glued themselves to a Rubens painting. Museum staff and police used solvents to separate the activists from the 17th-century frame. It was damaged, as was the wall covering, with damage amounting to €11,000 ($11,400), according to the public prosecutor's office. On November 17, the district court issued a penalty order.

In Vienna's Leopold Museum on November 15, climate activists from the group Last Generation spilled oil on Gustav Klimt's painting "Death and Life," which is covered by a protective glass. Despite tight controls at the entrance, the activists managed to smuggle the liquid into the museum by wearing a hot-water bottle under their clothing. The museum is still assessing potential damage.

At the beginning of November, activists from the group Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies sprayed letters on the glass covering prints from Andy Warhol's iconic "Campbell's Soup Cans" series, which is on show at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. An activist shouted, "We're in a climate emergency" before gluing a hand to the glass. The pop-art piece was cleaned and later rehung.

On November 5, activists glued themselves to the frames of two classic paintings by Francisco Goya at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The activists drew "+1.5°C" on the museum wall, referring to the Paris climate agreement's target for limiting global heating. The group Futuro Vegetal (Plant Future) claimed responsibility, stating that "the UN recognized the impossibility" of keeping to the target.

Two young activists from the German group Last Generation threw mashed potato liquid at Claude Monet's "Haystacks" at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam near Berlin. The Monet was protected by a glass frame. "People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying. We are in a climate catastrophe," said one of the activists.

Also in October, two women threw tomato soup from Heinz cans onto Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" to protest the climate crisis. They then glued their hands to the gallery wall. As with all of these actions, the oil painting itself was not harmed thanks to a glass protective case, though the protesters were arrested and later charged.

Just Stop Oil activists covered English painter John Constable's 1821 work, "The Hay Wain," with a color printout showing the idyllic river landscape replaced by a paved road, dead trees, factory smokestacks and airplanes. The work was partly chosen because an art restorer advised the activists that it had the requisite layers of paint and lacquer to withstand a light adhesive.

It might have only been a copy of da Vinci's priceless masterpiece on display at The Royal Academy in London, but during a July action, activists affixed themselves to the frame of the vast canvas imitation of "The Last Supper." Just for Oil's Simon Bramwell told DW that the work was chosen because it resonates with "crop failure" and increasing malnutrition linked to climate change.

Two members of the Italian climate activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) glued themselves to the ancient statue of the priest "Laocoon" at the Vatican Museums. The priest warned his fellow Trojans against taking in the wooden horse left by the Greeks outside the city gates. Similarly, the appeals of today's climate scientists also fall on deaf ears, the activists told DW.

Belgian activists with Just Stop Oil, aiming to end new fossil fuel projects, targeted a masterwork by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer in late October in The Hague. One person glued their hands to the "Girl With a Pearl Earring," which is behind glass, another to the adjoining wall, while a third threw soup at the work. Last week, two activists received two-month jail sentences.