Italian climate extremists have attacked the work of the late pop artist Andy Warhol by covering a car he decorated with flour while calling on the world to address their demands.
The move Friday in Milan was the latest in a string of stunts by protesters determined to defile any examples of art as a means of attracting attention to themselves and their causes.
Members of the group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) covered Warhol’s BMW M1 Art Car with refined flour to look like it was covered in snow.
According to the protester’s own website, the group conducts nonviolent civil disobedience actions to demand “urgent and concrete actions against the ecoclimate collapse.”
Four extremists threw eight kilos of flour over the colourful display at the Fabbrica del Vapore, a cultural centre hosting a retrospective of the pop-art master in a continuation of other attacks becoming more common across Europe and beyond.
Two activists were then seen being dragged away by security guards as others in the group glued their hands to the floor while yelling at those watching, according to video images.
“Works of art have been targeted in order to highlight the hypocrisy of our society’s values: do we really get outraged at the simulation of damage to works of art while the ongoing objective destruction of works of nature, ecosystems and our own lives leaves us indifferent?” wrote Last Generation in a statement.
Similar actions were taking place in four other countries, the activists said.
Other protesters smashed paint-filled balloons on the floor and glued themselves to the ground and the Andy Warhol tribute, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
File/A BMW automobile that artist Andy Warhol painted for BMW is shown on display at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall on March 24, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Corrigan/Getty Images)
Italian newspaper La Repubblica said the art gallery was forced to close after the stunt, and that the police were working to identify the activists behind it.
Stefano Lacagnina, the producer of the exhibition, told the newspaper that the protesters ‘paid for the ticket and had the bags of flour in their pockets. They completely sprinkled the machine with flour. It is an important piece, which was exhibited for the first time in the exhibition and has a great value.’
He added: “Now we have to figure out what to do.”