Claude Monet’s painting, smeared with paint on Wednesday in Stockholm by two environmental activists, suffered “no damage”, announced Thursday in Paris Christophe Leribault, director of the Musée d’Orsay to which this work belongs. “The painting has not suffered any damage,” said Christophe Leribault during a press conference devoted to the redevelopment work planned in his establishment from 2025 to 2027 and which will not lead to its closure.
The work in question, entitled The Artist’s Garden at Giverny (1900) is on loan from the Musée d’Orsay to the Nationalmuseum, as part of an exhibition devoted to gardens and nature. Christophe Leribault clarified that this painting had been examined by restorers from the two museums Thursday morning, by videoconference. Neither the work nor its frame, brushed with water-based paint, have been degraded, according to Christophe Leribault.
The organization Återställ Våtmarker (“Restore the wetlands”) claimed this action from AFP and released a video in which we can see two women, one nurse and the other, a student nurse, daub red paint the showcase protecting the painting. They chant, in chorus “The climate situation is urgent!” and “Our health is threatened!”. They were arrested by the police.
In an interview with AFP, the organization accused the Swedish government of not respecting its international commitments in terms of environmental policy. The Nationalmuseum is working to re-hang the painting in the exhibition, a spokeswoman told the daily Dagens Nyheter.
