A pair of climate activists from the group Just Stop Oil were arrested on Nov. 6 for breaking the glass frame of the famed 17th-century painting "Rokeby Venus," or the "Toilet of Venus," displayed at London's National Gallery.
In a video posted by user @nikoopolis on X, formerly known as Twitter, one of the vandal duo can be heard shouting "It is time for deed, not words. It is time to just stop oil," after repeatedly striking the protective frame on the painting using what appeared to be glass-breaking tools called "emergency hammers."
live from london’s national gallery! pic.twitter.com/9B8pZjPBta
— niko 😸🇵🇸 (@nikoopolis) November 6, 2023
"Politics is failing us. Politics failed women in 1914. If millions will die due to new oil and gas licenses, millions; if we love history, if we love art, and if we love our families we must just stop oil," the male activist added.
In an update on X, The Metropolitan Police confirmed the pair's arrest due to criminal damage and also reported on a simultaneous protest that happened in Whitehall, wherein around 100 Just Stop Oil climate activists slowly marched near Downing Street and halted the traffic.
The vandals were identified as Hanan, 22, and Harrison, 20, by Just Stop Oil in their statement posted on X regarding what happened. In the same thread, the activist group also likened the destructive actions of Hanan to those of Canadian Suffragette Mary Richardson who slashed the same painting in 1914.
The 'Rokeby Venus' Painting's First Run-in with a Vandal in 1914
Painted by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, the "Rokeby Venus" depicts the goddess Venus admiring her own nude body on a mirror held by his son, Cupid.
The reflection itself is blurred, which allows for more ambiguous personifications of Venus' female beauty. Out of all of Velázquez's work, the "Rokeby Venus" is the only one left depicting a nude female.
On March 10, 1914, the painting reached worldwide renown after Richardson slashed the painting using a butcher knife hidden in her sleeve. The violent act was reportedly done to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in the world.
All the slashes received by the famed painting were repaired successfully.
Richardson's actions were an attempt to shed awareness on the years of abuse, arrests, and torture that suffragettes, women who protested for voter's rights, have allegedly experienced. Richardson cited the "destruction" of suffragette Mrs. Pankhurst in particular as the reason for her protest, whom she referred to as the "most beautiful character in modern history."
Richardson was punished with a 6-month jail sentence and was released only weeks after her jailing in light of her going on a hunger strike.
