ART ATTACK
Fury as Just Stop Oil eco-protesters glue themselves to priceless masterpiece The Hay Wain at the National Gallery
ECO-protesters have sparked fury after they glued themselves to a priceless masterpiece at the National Gallery.
The yobs stuck themselves to the frame of John Constable's masterpiece The Hay Wain after covering it with their own image of "an apocalyptic vision of the future" of the landscape, on three large sheets of paper.
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The chaos forced the evacuation of art lovers, tourists and a class of 11-year-old children on a school trip from the room where the painting hangs.
They were later named as music student Eben Lazarus, 22, and psychology student Hannah Hunt, 23, both of Brighton.
They wore white T-shirts with the logo Just Stop Oil, stepped over a rope barrier and then placed the printed coloured paper on to the front of the painting.
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Each also placed a hand on the frame of the painting and kneeled beneath it before loudly outlining their concerns as visitors were ushered out by security staff.
Hunt, who is the co-founder of the group, previously glued herself to Baftas red carpet and broke into an oil refinery.
She and Lazarus were both arrested at around 4.45pm today following the stunt.
The Hay Wain, which was painted in 1821, is one of the most popular paintings at the gallery and shows a rural Suffolk scene of a wagon returning to the fields across a shallow ford for another load.
The protest sparked a rush of fury on social media today.
One person wrote: "You have no idea of the damage you can do to an art work. Protest yes but don’t destroy our heritage. You’ll just lose support."
Another added: "Can you protest in a less selfish way? Disrupting and annoying the general public is at best foolish."
While a third fumed: "Unbelievably reckless. The wrong target. ART is not the target. It’s so poorly judged. It sets back the net zero and climate debate by alienating the public. Art is not a legitimate target. This is childish, destructive and naive."
In a statement, Hunt later said "the disruption will end when the UK Government makes a meaningful statement that it will end new oil and gas licences".
It comes as five men, aged between 21 and 46, and two women, aged 20 and 44, were arrested after a track invasion on the opening lap of the race at Silverstone.
The incident was not shown on F1's global television feed, but eyewitness footage emerged of five people - understood to be representing JSO - entering the circuit at the high-speed Wellington Straight.
They then sat down on the tarmac.
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Five JSO members are also said to have attached themselves to a 19th-century landscape by Horatio McCulloch called My Heart's In The Highlands which hangs in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
They are also alleged to have sprayed the group's logo on the walls and floor of the renowned gallery in orange paint.