Following a climate protest in which activists threw flour on a Warhol-painted BMW in Milan, Italy’s cultural minister warned that museum admission prices could rise as museums increase security measures put in place to foil future climate protests, Adnkronos, an Italian publication, reported.
“The continuous attacks and outrages that increasingly occur to the detriment of our artistic and cultural heritage require us to rethink and reinforce the level of protection [in museums],” the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said in a statement. “[These actions] lead us to take immediate measures, starting with covering all the paintings with glass barriers”.
Sangiuliano did not specify which museums were going to be enacting these measures, or if he really meant that all works in Italy were going to be protected with glass barriers.
“Considering the enormous heritage to be protected, the intervention will represent a considerable cost for the coffers of the ministry and of the entire nation. Unfortunately, I can only foresee an increase in the cost of the entrance ticket,” said Sangiuliano.
Meanwhile, in Potsdam, Germany, a spokesman for the Potsdam public prosecutor, Sebastian Thiele, confirmed that the prosecutor is investigating whether the state can prosecute climate protestors for property damage following a protest in which activists threw mashed potatoes at Claude Monet’s painting Meules (1890).
Though the painting was not damaged, the frame and the ceiling were harmed by the mashed potatoes. If the investigation finds that there has been property damage, prosecutors could slam the activists with Letze Generazione (Last Generation) with a fine or up to three years imprisonment.