Sandro Botticelli's famed "Birth of Venus" masterpiece was the next victim in the recent series of demonstrations made by climate activists, with Riposte Alimentaire's food attack against Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" last month and Just Stop Oil's hammer attack at the National Gallery in the latter part of 2023.
This particular incident, on the other hand, happened in Florence's Uffizi Gallery in Italy and saw two protesters from the Last Generation group plastering photos on the Botticelli painting's protective glass of a Tuscan town previously ravaged by floods last year.
Behind the Last Generation Activist Group's Demonstration
The town was Campi Bisenzio, a commune found within the city that reported at least seven casualties among thousands that were separated from crucial utilities due to the severe flooding.
Thus, the region is among those deemed to be most at risk of weather-related damages brought about by climate change.
This was the primary focus of Last Generation's Italian arm during the protest, the photos and videos of which were posted on the group's X (formerly Twitter) account last Tuesday, Feb. 13.
"We ask the Government to take concrete action to support communities affected by climate disasters," wrote the group in its post. "They can censor us, but they cannot censor reality."
In another X post, one of the protesters was identified by Last Generation as Giordano, "a 40-year-old father from Empoli," who it said accepted "the risk of ending up in prison" after he violated the gallery's "precautionary measures."
Giordano can be heard in the video saying: "The government continues to pretend that fields did not burn in January, that water will not be a problem this summer, that houses destroyed by floods are accidental events and not caused by human choices."
According to a report made by the newswire Agence France-Presse, the two protesters were shortly apprehended by local police and brought to a nearby station after the demonstration. That said, what the duo was charged with were unmentioned.
