Climate Activists Splash Paint on a Picasso in Montreal

Montreal police arrested a climate protester after he splashed pink paint on Pablo Picasso’s “L’Hétaire” (1901) yesterday, June 19, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art (MMFA). The artwork was covered with protective glass.

Officers arrested a 21-year-old man for mischief after being called to the museum by security personnel around 10am, Montreal police told Hyperallergic. Two other individuals were at the scene filming the incident, but they were not charged. The protester who threw the paint has since been released and will be due in court at a later date.

The MMFA said in a statement to Hyperallergic that the paint used in the protest was water-based and that staff found “no immediate signs of damage to the painting.” The museum is currently conducting a comprehensive review.

The museum briefly closed the exhibition to visitors and reopened at 11:30am. The portrait has been temporarily removed from display.

The demonstrators were affiliated with the environmentalist group Last Generation Canada, who posted footage of the incident on X. In the video, an individual identified as Marcel is shown delivering a brief speech decrying the fires currently raging across western and northern Canada.

“There are more than 200 wildfires in Canada at this moment, 83 of which are not protected and are out of control,” Marcel says in front of the Picasso work.

The blazes in Canada have burned at least eight million acres so far, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes. In 2023, fires burned more than 45 million acres in the country’s 13 provinces and territories. At the time, the smoke forced cultural institutions as far as New York City to temporarily shutter due to record-breaking air quality alerts.

“We need a protection agency against climate disasters financed by the billionaire tax,” Marcel says in the video.

MMFA Director Stéphane Aquin said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic that the museum was “deeply dismayed” by the incident.

“It is most unfortunate that this act carried out in the name of environmental activism targeted a work belonging to our global cultural heritage and under safekeeping for the benefit of future generations,” Aquin said.

“Museums and artists alike are allies in the fight for a better world,” Aquin added. 

Stemming from the early years of Picasso’s Blue period, the painting is part of an exhibition at the MMFA centering on the French Modern art dealer Berthe Weill. It is on loan from the Pinacoteca Agnelli, an art gallery based in Turin, Italy.

In a press release, Last Generation Canada called on the Canadian government to form a Climate Disaster Protection Agency to assist residents impacted by the wildfires. The group further decried the role of billionaires and corporations profiting off of fossil fuels. 

“The social contract is broken — it’s time for Canadians to disrupt business as usual to ensure our protection and make the rich pay for what they’ve done,” the group wrote.