Italian environmental activists glued their hands to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli’s “Spring” painting in Florence’s Uffizi Galleries on Friday, police said. The museum said that thanks to the glass, which was installed as a precaution several years ago, the masterpiece was unharmed.
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Combined with the Florentine artist’s other masterpiece, “The Birth of Venus,” the two iconic canvases, which date from the late 15th century, are among the museum’s most popular artworks. The painting is large, measuring 10 feet, 6 inches by 6 feet, 9 inches (319 cm by 207 cm).
Carabinieri police said two young women and a man, all Italians who had bought entry tickets, organized the protest in the Uffizi gallery dedicated to the painter. Activists sat on the ground and displayed a banner that read “Last Generation No Gas No Coal,” police said.
A museum official tries to block two activists from the environmental group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) as they try to cling to the glass that protects the Primavera (Spring) by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. (Final generation via AP)
The glue was safely removed from the glass.
Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted the activists in a statement: “Today, is it possible to see a beautiful spring like this?”
The three were taken to a police station in Florence. Italian media said the activists were officially ordered to stay out of the popular tourist city for three years, using a strategy in Italy similar to that often used against violent soccer fans.
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