"Climate activists attack Velázquez's painting."

This morning, two young protesters associated with the environmental activist organization Just Stop Oil entered the National Gallery in London and smashed the glass protecting Diego Velazquez's work. The attack was in response to today's announcement that the government of conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to issue annual licenses for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, doubling their commitment to depleting resources and abandoning clean and renewable energy sources. This action marked the organization's latest attempt to draw attention to the global need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic climate change. The pair targeted Velazquez's work, "Toilet of Venus" from 1647–51.

This work, widely known as "The Rokeby Venus," was vandalized in 1914 by Canadian activist Mary Richardson as a protest against the imprisonment and mistreatment of British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Last year, Just Stop Oil announced that it would take inspiration from the suffrage movement of the early twentieth century, but its members have not yet embarked on any projects. The attack on "The Rokeby Venus" is a continuation of the group's previous attempts to draw attention to their cause, including the drenching of Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting "Sunflowers" with tomato soup last year. This incident also took place at the National Gallery and angered the International Council of Museums.

"Women did not obtain the vote through voting; the time for action, not words, has come," said one of the protesters, twenty-two-year-old Hanan Amer, to those gathered after the action. Using five blows with a harmless hammer, Amer and his twenty-year-old protest colleague Harrison Donnelly managed to break the glass in several places. The painting only suffered minor damage, as reported by Hyperallergic, and is being inspected by restorers. It is not yet known when the work will return to the gallery; in the meantime, it has been replaced by a seventeenth-century Italian painting, "Dead Soldier," which was previously attributed to Velazquez.

According to the Metropolitan Police of London, Amer and Donnelly were arrested for the criminal damage they caused.

.