Two activists from the group Last Generation approached Monet's "Les Meules" at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam and threw a viscous material over the artwork and its gold frame. Last Generation has urged the German government to take drastic measures to safeguard the climate and stop using fossil fuels.
The group later confirmed via a post on Twitter that the mixture was mashed potatoes. The two activists, both wearing orange high-visibility vests, also glued themselves to the wall below the painting.
“If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society remember that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!" the group wrote on Twitter, along with a video of the incident.
According to the German news agency dpa, the incident involved four people in total.
The Barberini Museum has not yet decided whether the painting, which is a part of Monet's "Haystacks" series, is authentic or not, a museum representative told dpa. possibly sustained long-term harm.
Police informed dpa that they had responded to the event, but that they did not yet have any additional information regarding any arrests or charges.
The Monet painting is the latest artwork in a museum to be targeted by climate activists to draw attention to global warming.
Earlier this month, the British organisation Just Stop Oil splashed tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in the National Gallery in London.
The frames of an early replica of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and John Constable's "The Hay Wain" at the National Gallery were also covered in adhesive by Just Stop Oil protesters.
(With inputs from AP)
