London CNN —Two climate activists from the group Just Stop Oil have been arrested after smashing the glass protecting a famous painting in London’s National Gallery on Monday, the city’s Metropolitan Police said.
A video posted to Just Stop Oil’s account on X shows the activists wearing white Just Stop Oil t-shirts and breaking the glass protecting Diego Velázquez’s 17th-century “Rokeby Venus” with orange safety hammers.
The National Gallery said on X that the room was cleared of visitors and police were called after the demonstration took place just before 11 a.m. local time on Monday.
The Metropolitan Police tweeted: “Two Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested for criminal damage.
The glass protecting a painting at the National Gallery has been vandalized.”A number of Just Stop Oil activists also gathered in Whitehall, the London thoroughfare that runs from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament, on Monday.
Persons:
Diego Velázquez’s, Rokeby Venus, Mary Raleigh Richardson, “, conservators, Vincent van, Leonardo da Vinci’s, ”, Johannes Vermeer’s
Organizations:
London CNN, city’s Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Police, Stop, golf’s, Wimbledon
Locations:
Whitehall, London, “ Whitehall, England