Environmental activists have clung to a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, closing part of the Royal Academy’s art gallery in a demonstration on fossil fuels.
“No New Oil” has been spray-painted under the eight-meter work of art, while five protesters have stuck their hands to the frame in the London gallery.
The Just Stop Oil group is known to disrupt roads and get stuck in the pipes of oil terminals, and last week it went to art institutions.
The five protesters remained tied up on Tuesday afternoon, the Royal Academy said.
Police have been called to the scene.
Former primary school teacher Lucy Porter, 47, is among the five activists who have been hooked, according to Just Stop Oil.
“When I was teaching, I took my students to big institutions like the Royal Academy,” he said.
“But now it feels unfair to expect them to respect our culture when their government is determined to destroy their future by awarding new oil and gas projects.
“We don’t have time left, to say we do is a lie.”
Porter called for a halt to all new oil and gas exploration, promising that the group “will stop disrupting art institutions as soon as the government makes a meaningful statement to do so.”
He added: “Until then, the disruption will continue so that young people know that we are doing everything we can for them. There is nothing I would rather do.”
Read more: More than 200 arrests for climate activists disrupt key terminals for third day
“A world where I have no future”
The copy of the Last Supper, which was painted by one of the students of the Italian virtuoso Giampietrino around 1520, shows the biblical scene in which Jesus announces that one of his twelve apostles will betray him.
Unlike some previous representations of the Last Supper, da Vinci does not give halos to all the apostles except Judas, but shadows his face to distinguish him from his fellow apostles.
Art student Jessica Agar, 21, one of the five activists identified by the group, said: “No painting is worth more than the life of my six-month-old nephew.
“No sculpture can feed babies dying of starvation because extreme heat killed food crops.
“Nurses queue outside food banks, not galleries.
“I’m an art student, but there’s no place to pursue my vocation as an artist in a world where I have no future.”
A spokesman for the Royal Academy confirmed that five people had entered the institution’s collection gallery and stuck to the picture of the last dinner.
“The room has been closed to the public. Police have been called at the request of the protesters,” the spokesman added.
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