Green activists glued their hands to The Last Supper at the Royal Academy in London today in the latest in a series of high profile protests. Four Just Stop Oil supporters sprayed paint inside the Academy building in central London before gluing their hands to the frame of the famous painting.
They are calling on the Government to commit to immediately halt new oil and gas licences in the UK and for the directors, employees and members of art institutions to join the Just Stop Oil coalition in peaceful civil resistance. The Last Supper, attributed to Giampietrino, is a full-scale copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous work.
Giampietrino is thought to have been a pupil of Leonardo. The painting depicts the biblical scene when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles will betray him.
One of the protestors, art student Jessica Agar, 21 from Hereford, said: “No painting is worth more than my six-month-old nephew’s life. No sculpture can feed babies starving because extreme heat killed food crops.
"Nurses are lining up outside food banks, not galleries. If the directors of this gallery really believe that art has the power to change the world then I demand that they claim that power, close and refuse to open until the government commits to no new oil.
“I am an art student, but there is no place for me to follow my calling as an artist in a world where I have no future. In no uncertain terms, the establishment - of which the Royal Academy is a part - has condemned me and all young people to suffer. I am outraged and you should be too.”
Another protestor Lucy Porter, 47, a former primary teacher from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: “When I was teaching I brought my students to great institutions like the Royal Academy. But now it feels unfair to expect them to respect our culture when their government is hellbent on destroying their future by licensing new oil and gas projects.
“We have no time left, to say that we do is a lie. We must halt all new oil and gas right now, we will stop disrupting art institutions as soon as the Government makes a meaningful statement to do so.
"Until then, the disruption will continue so that young people know we are doing all we can for them. There is nothing I would rather be doing."
Tristan Strange, 40, a community organiser from Swindon, Wiltshire, said: “I'm terrified for our future. We are heading for a collapse of our food supply and a world in which only the rich can feed themselves comfortably.
"Time is running out to change course or prepare for disaster and the message is not reaching the public: there is no free pass, we are all in this together and we must all rise up in civil resistance to force the government to stop new oil and gas.
“Da Vinci said that art is the Queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world. The science still isn't being heard.
“We are continually fed comforting lies that downplay the urgency of the climate crisis we face so that fossil fuel interests can continue to reap huge profits whilst the global south and our children are condemned to live in a potential hell. I call on all artists to harness every ounce of their creativity sounding the alarm in the hope that it cuts through the misinformation. Nothing is more critical at the moment."
Yesterday Hannah Hunt, 23 a psychology student from Brighton, Sussex, and music student Eben Lazarus, 22, also from Brighton, glued themselves to the frame of Constable’s The Hay Wain at the National Gallery in central London. That followed three days of protests at art institutions in London, Glasgow and Manchester last week.
