Environmental activists smash glass on painting at London's National Gallery

Two climate activists from the group "Just Stop Oil" have been arrested after smashing the glass protecting a famous painting in London’s National Gallery on November 6.

As reported by the BBC, a video posted to Just Stop Oil’s account on X shows the activists wearing white Just Stop Oil t-shirts and breaking the glass protecting Diego Velázquez’s 17th-century “Rokeby Venus” with orange safety hammers.

The National Gallery said on X that the room was cleared of visitors and police were called after the demonstration took place just before 11 a.m. local time on Monday.

“The painting is now being removed from display so it can be examined by conservators,” the post added.

A number of Just Stop Oil activists also gathered in Whitehall, the London thoroughfare that runs from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament, on Monday. The protest group said more than 100 people were marching in the area before the police began to arrest them.

Climate activists sentenced to prison for Vermeer protest

Just Stop Oil has targeted several artworks in recent years, including Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” and Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”