Gallery prices rising to stop art protests
The enormous cost of installing glass screens to shield paintings from more frequent climate protester attacks needs to be covered, Italy’s culture minister warns.
The prices of museum and gallery tickets may be increased to cover the cost of protecting masterpieces from being defaced by climate protesters, Italy’s culture minister has warned.
“The ever more frequent attacks and outrages against our artistic and cultural heritage force us to rethink and reinforce the levels of their protection,” Gennaro Sangiuliano said.
“The senseless and gratuitous violence targeting paintings, installations, works and structures of our museums and galleries drives us to take immediate measures, starting with the installation of glass screens for all paintings.”
Mr Sangiuliano said the enormous cost would be too much for his ministry to bear and “unfortunately, will require an increase in the cost of entrance tickets”.
Famous works have been subjected to symbolic attacks in museums around the world. Generally they have been protected by glass screens and the protests have not so far caused serious damage. In Italy, activists belonging to a group called Last Generation threw pea soup at Van Gogh’s The Sower, in a gallery in the centre of Rome. Mr Sangiuliano visited the Palazzo Bonaparte to assess the consequences.
Mashed potatoes have been hurled at a Monet in Potsdam, tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London and white flour scattered over a BMW car redecorated by Andy Warhol, in Milan.
An activist who participated in the Rome attack said the organisation was using food products and targeting works with an agricultural theme to highlight the threat of climate change to food production. “We’re on the verge of a devastating food crisis,” the activist, a biotechnology student identified as Ismaela, 24, told La Repubblica.
The directors of about 100 international galleries have said they were “deeply shaken” by the attacks on fragile works of art. The activists “severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects”, they said in a joint statement this month.
At the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where tickets cost $24.80 in high season and $18.60 in low season, officials are waiting to learn the details of Mr Sangiuliano’s plan. “Many of the works are already protected by glass, especially the masterpieces,” a spokesman said.
– The Times
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