In other cases, the wall between the work and the audience goes against the spirit of the work. Mabel Tapia, deputy artistic director of Madrid’s Reina Sofía Art Center, said he would never allow highlights in its collection. Picasso’s 1937 anti-war masterpiece Guernica Visible behind glass. It was “a symbol of the struggle between freedom and fascism.”
Tapia said she recently redeployed security guards so they could focus on high-profile tasks. This is something she often does during her protests, but she felt there was little she could do. “The only way to actually do something is to close the museum,” Tapia said. Museums should be places where people come together to think about important issues, she added.
The insurance company’s Reid said there was “no silver bullet” to deal with the protests. He added that museum management only hoped that protesters would remain “gentle, middle-class liberals” who took steps to avoid permanent harm.
Florian Wagner, 30, the member of The Last Generation who threw the black mixture on Klimt’s painting in the Leopold Museum, said in a phone call that he knew before the protest that the work was protected by glass. He said he practiced the stunt five times at home and was confident it wouldn’t detract from the painting. But we want to “shock people” and encourage them to take action on climate change.
He said he would not hold any further protests, adding: “I think I’ve made my point.” I said yes. Action will not stop until the government “takes action on this crisis,” he added.
Elisabetta Povoledo Contributed to reporting from Rome.