A Vatican court has convicted two climate protesters of aggravated damage after they glued their hands to the marble base of an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums.
Guido Viero – a grandfather – and Ester Goffi of the radical environmentalist group Last Generation chose to target the statue to raise awareness about climate change. And third activist, Laura Zorzini, filmed the pair.
The sculpture, Laocoon And His Sons, was created on the Greek island of Rhodes around 2,100 years ago. It depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon being consumed by sea serpents as he tried to warn the Trojans about the dangers of accepting the now infamous Trojan horse.
Two of the protesters glued themselves to the sculpture’s base, while the third filmed them. They then hung a banner on the statue which read “Last Generation: No Gas And No Carbon.”
The group said they chose this statue to glue themselves to because like Laocoon, they were trying to warn the world about a great danger.
During closing arguments, Vatican City State’s lawyer, Floriana Gigli, accused the defendants of causing “inestimable” and permanent damage to the priceless artwork, saying that they knew their actions would damage the piece, hence why they glued their hands to the base and not the statue itself. Despite this, she said, they never expressed any remorse for causing the damage.
Gigli added that the restoration work on the piece alone had cost €3,148, and accused the activists of abusing Pope Francis’ concern for the environment as part of their display.
Guy Devreux, the head of the Vatican Museums’ marble restoration laboratory, previously said that the damage done to the base was less than he had initially expected, but it was permanent regardless. He added that the statue’s marble base of the statute was “absolutely” an “integral part of the work.”
In May, Viero and Goffi told the court that they had never meant to damage the statue. However, they spoke out vocally and unashamedly in support of their cause.
Ultimately, Viero and Goffi were ordered to pay over €28,000 to the state for restitution, were fined €1,620 each, and each received a nine-month suspended sentence. Zorzini was fined €120 for filming the event.
In the past year there has been a trend of climate activists vandalising priceless artworks globally to raise awareness about climate change.
In January of this year, a Cork man was accused of causing criminal damage to a painting at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork when he allegedly threw soup at the artwork.
Cork man accused of throwing soup at gallery painting appears in court https://t.co/mY9ismntWc
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) January 19, 2023
Last October, activists threw soup over Vincent Van Gough’s classic painting “Sunflowers”. They then glued themselves to the wall to make it harder for gallery security to remove them – a classic tactic commonly used by eco-radicals like Extinction Rebellion.
The same group also threw mashed potatoes on a classic Monet painting in Germany, leading to criminal damage charges.
Later that month,Green Party Junior Minister Ossian Smyth told a group of young people that throwing beans at paintings is “a really effective thing to do” during an Oireachtas Committee meeting.
Green Minister: Throwing beans at paintings is “really effective”