Activists throw mashed potatoes at Monet’s “cereal piles”.

Two German climate activists from the “Last Generation” group threw mashed potatoes at a photo of French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam on Sunday afternoon.

Activist Mirjam Herrmann (25) and a man entered the museum wearing safety vests, approached the painting and then took action.

“People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying. We are in the climate catastrophe. And the only thing you’re afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting,” Herrmann screamed after smearing the artwork.

Painting auctioned for 110 million in 2019

Spokeswoman Aimée van Baalen says: “We must not get lost in the idyll on the screen, but face reality! There will be no time to admire art as we fight for food and water.”

The painting entitled “Grainstack” dates from 1891 and was auctioned in 2019 for 110 million francs. It is currently unclear whether the artwork was damaged by the promotion or not.

It is not the first time that climate activists have targeted a world-famous painting. In mid-October, two activists smuggled two cans of tomato soup into the National Gallery in London and poured them over Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) masterpiece “Sunflowers”.

The next day then the next action. This time by the group Extinction Rebellion. A man and a woman struck in the Australian city of Melbourne. In the National Gallery of Victoria, they stuck to the protective glass of the painting “Massacre in Korea” by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Next to them they placed a banner on the ground in front of them with the inscription: “Climate Chaos = War and Famine”. That reports CNN. The two activists were arrested after the incident. (ceded)