The French justice system acquitted an environmental activist this Tuesday who stuck a sign on the glass which protects the painting ‘Coquelicots’ by Claude Monet in the Orsay Museum in Paris to denounce climate change.
The events occurred on June 1. That day, the woman put up a red sign “about 50 centimeters long” that represented an apocalyptic landscapebefore gluing his hand to the wall next to the impressionist painter’s canvas.
At the hearing on November 20 before the Paris court, the young woman, a member of the Riposte Alimentaire movement, assured that “if there had not been glass”, she would not have carried out this “action of civil resistance.”
“A criminal conviction would have constituted a disproportionate interference in the exercise of my client’s right to freedom of expression,” explained her lawyer, Yves Patouillard. The prosecution had also requested acquittal.
The Orsay museum, which has been established as a civil part, has been estimated at 27,788 euros (about $28,860) the economic prejudice of the action due to the work involved in removing the poster from the protective glass and the temporary closure of the exhibition.
In 2023, justice had already sentenced the activist to a sentence of two months in prisonwith a suspended sentence, and a citizen education course for similar acts.
In recent years, environmental activists have carried out actions against masterpieces – gluing hands, throwing soups or puree, etc. – to warn of the climate emergency.
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