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Activist group Last Generation posted images online of one supporter
pouring what it called a "black, oily liquid" on the screen in front
of Klimt's "Death and Life" at the Leopold Museum, before being
intercepted by a member of staff while another activist apparently
glued his hand to the screen.
The episode is the latest in a series of such actions by
climate-change activists seeking to jolt public opinion by throwing
liquid at or gluing themselves to famous works of art in museums or
the equipment protecting those works.
One of Last Generation Austria's tweets said: "New drilling for oil
and gas is a death sentence for humanity."
The group picked a day on which they will likely have saved
themselves the cost of tickets because entry to the museum was free
on Tuesday, St Leopold's Day, thanks to sponsorship by Austrian oil
and gas company OMV.
"Fortunately the (1915) work of art was not damaged. Nonetheless we
are shocked that the Leopold Museum was in focus here," the museum's
museological director, Hans-Peter Wipplinger, told a news
conference.
He added that the museum had recently stepped up security in light
of similar attacks elsewhere.
While the museum sympathised with the activists' cause, it disagreed
with the means employed, Wipplinger said.
He said he expected Last Generation to foot the bill for the police
deployment and clean-up, which he estimated at five figures in euros
(dollars).
A museum spokesman said he did not know whether the activists had
been arrested. Vienna police were not immediately available for
comment.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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