Activists threw pink paint at a glass-protected Picasso paintings on the Montreal Museum of Positive Arts. (photograph through Final Era Canada)
Montreal police arrested a local weather protester after he splashed pink paint on Pablo Picasso’s “L’Hétaire” (1901) yesterday, June 19, on the Montreal Museum of Positive Artwork (MMFA). The paintings was coated with protecting glass.
Officers arrested a 21-year-old man for mischief after being known as to the museum by safety personnel round 10am, Montreal police informed Hyperallergic. Two different people had been on the scene filming the incident, however they weren’t charged. The protester who threw the paint has since been launched and might be due in court docket at a later date.
The MMFA mentioned in an announcement to Hyperallergic that the paint used within the protest was water-based and that workers discovered “no immediate signs of damage to the painting.” The museum is at the moment conducting a complete evaluate.
The museum briefly closed the exhibition to guests and reopened at 11:30am. The portrait has been quickly faraway from show.
The demonstrators had been affiliated with the environmentalist group Final Era Canada, who posted footage of the incident on X. Within the video, a person recognized as Marcel is proven delivering a short speech decrying the fires at the moment raging throughout 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 entrance of the Picasso work.
‼️ BREAKING: PINK PAINT THROWN ON PICASSO PAINTING!
🖼️This morning Marcel, a Final Era Canada supporter threw pink paint on L’Hétaire (or La Courtisane au Collier), a Picasso portray within the Musée de Beaux Arts in Montreal. DONATE: https://t.co/AsbXy1uVKb pic.twitter.com/VmpsJbaZvl
— Final Era (@lastgencanada) June 19, 2025
The blazes in Canada have burned not less than eight million acres to date, forcing tens of 1000’s of residents to evacuate their houses. In 2023, fires burned greater than 45 million acres within the nation’s 13 provinces and territories. On the time, the smoke compelled cultural establishments so far as New York Metropolis to quickly shutter because of record-breaking air high quality alerts.
“We need a protection agency against climate disasters financed by the billionaire tax,” Marcel says within the video.
MMFA Director Stéphane Aquin mentioned in an announcement 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 mentioned.
“Museums and artists alike are allies in the fight for a better world,” Aquin added.
Stemming from the early years of Picasso’s Blue interval, the portray is a part of an exhibition on the MMFA centering on the French Fashionable artwork supplier Berthe Weill. It’s on mortgage from the Pinacoteca Agnelli, an artwork gallery primarily based in Turin, Italy.
In a press launch, Final Era Canada known as on the Canadian authorities to type a Local weather Catastrophe Safety Company to help residents impacted by the wildfires. The group additional decried the position of billionaires and companies 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.
