Botticelli's Masterpiece "Venus" Targeted by Eco-Activists in Italy

Botticelli's famous work The Birth of Venus, a Renaissance masterpiece on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, has been vandalised by so-called 'eco-activists'. They covered the work of art with stickers depicting floods in Campi Bisenzio, Tuscany, attached with adhesive tape to the glass that protected the painting.

Activists from the Last Generation climate movement said they were protesting the Italian government's failure to address climate issues that are leading to more frequent flooding and landslides, including severe flooding in Tuscany last year that killed at least six people and caused extensive damage.

The museum staff immediately vacated and closed the premises, and police took the two activists in for questioning. Under the new law, the "protesters" face imprisonment.

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" was supplemented by "images of the reality in which we are drowning," Ultima Generazione explains, "increasingly frequent floods and landslides that damage homes, schools, hospitals and roads on the one hand, and incredible droughts on the other.

This gesture of protest, i.e. placing images with tape on a painting, will be defined as a crime under the new law, which merits up to 6 months in prison.

Museum staff removed the stickers from the glass, leaving no trace. The hall where the painting hangs was opened to tourists in 15 minutes. 

As The Gaze previously wrote, last December, a painting by Sandro Botticelli worth 100 million euros was found in a private house in the Italian city of Naples. The masterpiece was considered lost for more than 50 years.