Two climate protesters have ignited worldwide outrage in Spain‘s capital after vandalizing a historic artwork depicting Christopher Columbus.
The female demonstrators from the Futuro Vegetal organization were filmed hurling red paint across a 133 year old masterpiece at Madrid’s Naval Museum on Sunday (October 12) – deliberately timed to coincide with Spain’s national commemoration day.
Onlookers yelled at the pair – identified as Victoria Domingo, 39, and Luna Lago, 29 – as they splattered paint over José Garnelo’s canvas showing Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492.
Security personnel immediately seized the women and hauled them away.
Authorities subsequently detained them “for crimes of damage to historical heritage, aggravated damage, public disorder, resistance and disobedience, and criminal association,” according to the group’s statement on X (formerly Twitter), reports the Express.
Futuro Vegetal alleged on Tuesday that law enforcement was “condemning” their activists to starvation by refusing to provide plant-based meals, according to the Daily Mail.
The attack has left Garnelo’s First Tribute to Christopher Columbus with “irreparable damage,” museum representatives confirmed.
Officials revealed their staff scrambled to begin emergency restoration work on the painting.
The museum evacuated all patrons so workers could focus on repairs, managing to complete the task within several hours.
Both protesters sported T-shirts displaying the Futuro Vegetal (“Plant Future”) emblem. In the wake of the attack, outraged commenters on X platform expressed their anger, stating: “They should be in jail,” and “Museums are an artifact of high-trust societies in that they expect people entering them to behave themselves and not destroy the art”.
The two women involved are the same duo who defaced Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica with red dye back in August. During that incident, they chanted “climate justice” and accused the Spanish government of being “complicit” in the numerous forest fires that swept across the country over the summer.
The pair were subsequently arrested and each fined €600 (£522).
Futuro Vegetal, in a social media post, stated: “The celebration of October 12 is the celebration of centuries of oppression, exploitation and the genocide of the indigenous population of Abya Yala [a term used to describe the indigenous peoples of the Americas]”.
On the same day as the paint attack, 20 activists staged a sit-in at the Reina Sofía Museum in the city. They positioned themselves in front of Guernica, Pablo Picasso’s renowned anti-war painting that depicts the horrors of the Spanish Civil War in the town of the same name.
The protesters, from the group Marea Palestina, held signs that read: “Stop genocide” in reference to the military action in Gaza. After 40 minutes, the group exited the venue while chanting: “Long live free Palestine”.
Last year, Futuro Vegetal made headlines when five activists were stopped by security at Barcelona El-Prat Airport after trying to glue themselves to the runway.
The protest was part of a series of eco-demonstrations across Europe by Oil Kills, an activist group associated with Just Stop Oil in the UK.