The Metropolitan Police were called to the National Gallery after Eben Lazarus and Hannah Hunt glued themselves to a frame (Picture: PA)
Two climate change protesters glued themselves to the frame of a 19th-century masterpiece in London’s National Gallery today.
Music student Eben Lazarus, 22, and psychology student Hannah Hunt, 23, who are both from Brighton, attached themselves to John Constable’s painting ‘The Hay Wain’ in front of a crowd of shocked visitors.
Wearing white T-shirts with the logo of Just Stop Oil (JSO), they stepped over a rope barrier and placed their own image of ‘an apocalyptic vision’ of what the landscape would look like in the future.
Split in three large sheets of paper, it featured an old car dumped in front of the Mill and the Hay Wain cart carrying an old washing machine.
Their protest forced the evacuation of art tourists and a class of 11-year-olds on a school trip from the room where the painting hangs.
A video shared by JSO, a climate activist group, shows Lazarus and Hunt kneeling on the floor with a hand each on the frame.
‘I want to work in the arts not disrupt them,’ the protester told onlookers.
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The protesters from Just Stop Oil climate group covered John Constable’s The Hay Wain with their own picture (Picture: PA)
‘But the situation we are in means that we have to do everything nonviolently possible to prevent the civilisational collapse that we are hurtling towards.
‘I have younger siblings – the youngest just 10 and 12 – and I refuse to stand by while they are voiceless and let them be sentenced to a future of suffering.
‘Our government are failing their democratic mandate to protect us. Art is important. It should be held for future generations to see, but when there is no food what use is art.
‘When there is no water, what use is art. When billions of people are in pain and suffering, what use then is art.’
Their action comes a day after JSO invaded the Formula One track at Silverstone during the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.
Way more risk of death with climate change to everyone than there is attempting to delay a motor race.
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) July 4, 2022
It is not believed that the painting has been damaged (Picture: PA)
Five men, aged between 21 and 46, and two women, aged 20 and 44, were arrested as a result.
Last week, supporters of the group also caused disruption in Glasgow, Manchester and London by gluing on to the frames of famous paintings including Van Gogh’s Peach Trees in Blossom.
In a statement on the National Gallery’s protest, Hunt later said the disruption will end when the government makes a ‘meaningful statement’ that it will end new oil and gas licences.
She added: ‘I’m here because our government plans to license 40 new UK oil and gas projects in the next few years.
‘This makes them complicit in pushing the world towards an unlivable climate and in the death of billions of people in the coming decades.
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‘You can forget our “green and pleasant land” when further oil extraction will lead to widespread crop failures which means we will be fighting for food.
‘Ultimately, new fossil fuels are a death project by our government.
‘So yes, there is glue on the frame of this painting but there is blood on the hands of our government.’
A spokesperson for the gallery confirmed that the room was closed to the public.
The Metropolitan Police were called to the scene at 2.25pm by staff.
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