First Official Portrait of King Charles Defaced by 'Animal Rights Activists'

Animal rights activists have defaced the first official portrait of King Charles III after his coronation by covering the image with stickers ‘to draw the monarch's attention to the suffering of animals on British farms’, the Daily Mail reports.

During a demonstration at the Philip Mould Gallery in London, two protesters from a group called Animal Rising climbed over a safety rope in front of shocked visitors before defacing a painting with stickers of Wallace from the Wallace and Gromit cartoon, and sticking the inscription next to it: "No cheese, Gromit. Look at all the cruelty on RSPCA farms!"

They note that King Charles is a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, so the stickers with the cartoon characters should attract his attention.

Animal Rising is calling on King Charles to suspend his support for the charity, of which he is a royal patron, until they abandon the safeguarding scheme in place to protect animal welfare standards.

It is believed that the painting, which was partly inspired by the King's history of environmental work, was kept behind plexiglass so it should not have been damaged.

In May, Buckingham Palace unveiled the first official portrait of the British King Charles III after his coronation.

The epidemic of vandalism of famous paintings by ecoactivists and animal rights activists has been gaining momentum in recent years. 

In February, Botticelli's masterpiece Venus became the target of ecoactivists in Italy. They covered the work of art with stickers depicting floods in Campi Bisenzio, Tuscany, attached with tape to the glass that protected the painting. The ecoactivists said they were protesting the Italian government's failure to address climate issues that are leading to more frequent flooding and landslides, including a severe flood in Tuscany last year that killed at least six people and caused extensive damage.