• Culture Just Stop Oil, the radical environmental association that attacks paintings to "fight climate change"

Two activists from the group Just Stop Oil on Monday hammered the protective glass of Velázquez's Venus in the Mirror at the National Gallery in London. Police have arrested the two young men, identified as Hanan (22) and Harrison (20) and charged with "criminal damage". The painting was removed from the museum's exhibition and is being examined by conservators to assess the damage.

The incident has occurred a little more than a year after the throwing of a soup can against Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the London museum, also by two Just Stop Oil activists - Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer - who have an appointment with the British justice system next June.

Velázquez's Venus, dated 1647 and valued at more than 80 million euros, was damaged in 1914 by the historic activist Mary Richardson, leader of the group of suffragettes who demanded the vote for women. Richardson went so far as to cut the canvas to demand the release of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

At the time of the attack on the Velázquez painting on Monday, with what police described as an "emergency rescue hammer", the two Just Stop Oil activists stressed their intention to emulate the suffragettes. "Women didn't get the vote by voting," proclaimed the young woman identified as Hanan. "This is the time for deeds, not words. It's time for Just Stop Oil.
"When I was a child, I dreamed of being an astronaut or a singer," Hanan added, in a video recorded by the environmental group. "Then I saw the future, as ridiculous as it sounds. Now those dreams are over. The future we are moving towards leaves us no room to dream."
The action against Velázquez's Venus comes on the eve of the King's Speech, in which Rishi Sunak's Conservative government will confirm the "reversal" of environmental policies and the granting of annual licenses for new oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea.
The British government has severely toughened penalties against activists following the passage of the Public Order Act, pushed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and harshly criticised by civil liberties groups. Two Just Stop Oil activists, Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, were sentenced in April to three years in prison for unfurling a banner atop Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames and disrupting traffic for hours.

Braverman has vowed to crack down on "eco-fanatics," who can be sentenced to six months in jail for chaining themselves or sticking to a surface. Sixty Just Stop Oil activists were in fact arrested last week for blocking traffic. Greta Thunberg was arrested two weeks ago in the "sit-in" against an oil producers' forum held at a central London hotel.

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