Climate activist defaces Monet painting in Paris

A climate activist has been arrested for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global heating, a police source said.

The action by the woman, a member of Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) – a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production – was seen in a video posted on X, placing a blood-red poster over Coquelicots (Poppies) by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet.

In the video she said of the poster covering Monet’s art that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place”.

Monet’s painting, completed in 1873, shows people with umbrellas strolling in a blooming poppy field.

It was not protected by glass. The Musée d’Orsay did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the condition of the painting after the attack.

Riposte Alimentaire has claimed responsibility for several attacks on art in attempts to draw attention to the climate crisis.

They include soup attacks on the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, and on another Monet painting, Springtime, in the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts in February.

Last month, activists belonging to the group stuck flyers around Liberty Leading the People, a painting by Eugène Delacroix in the Louvre.

In April, two of its members were arrested at the Musée d’Orsay suspected of preparing an action there.