Gaza campaigners target Picasso painting in latest National Gallery protest

Activists from the civil resistance group Youth Demand have pasted a photo of a mother and child from Gaza over a Picasso painting at London’s National Gallery.

The two campaigners entered room 43 of the gallery just before 1200 on 9 October and plastered the photo over the glass cover of Picasso’s 1901 masterpiece, Motherhood (La Maternité). They went on to pour red paint on the gallery floor.

The group says it took the action to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel and call on the UK Government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.

The image of a distressed Gazan mother and her child was taken by Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah, with the caption reading “A mom holds [her] injured child after an Israeli attack, as Israeli airstrikes continue on 12th day, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City”.

The hospital has since been destroyed in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, which has caused more than 42,000 deaths in Gaza over the past year.

One of the protesters, NHS worker Jai Halai, said: “I’m taking action with Youth Demand because at this point it’s been over one year of seeing my colleagues in the healthcare field decimated. Decimated by bombs, by bullets and by having to operate, with no medical equipment, on starved children. 

“We need a two-way arms embargo on Israel now; 87% of the British public want this and never before have they been more disillusioned with our government and political class who do not represent us. We need a revolution in our democracy.”

The second protester, Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, a politics and international relations student, said: “I’m taking action because as a Jew, I feel like it’s my duty to call out the genocide being committed in Gaza.

“I want the world to know this isn’t in the Jewish name and I want to see a free Palestine. When Keir Starmer says Britain stands with Israel he’s wrong. We know very well that this is a genocide, not ‘self defense’ and we as the people of Britain say enough is enough.”

The National Gallery said there was “no damage to any paintings”.

A statement from the institution said: “One [protester] was apprehended after initially attempting to attach what appeared to be a piece of paper to an artwork. Some paint was thrown on the floor. Police attended and arrested the pair.”

The demonstration comes just weeks after protesters from the climate action group Just Stop Oil threw soup over two of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings. According to reports, the action caused damage to the painting’s antique frames, but the artworks themselves were not damaged.

Lengthy prison sentences were recently handed down to two Just Stop Oil activists who targeted a Van Gogh painting at the gallery in 2022.

Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, were imprisoned for two years and 20 months, respectively, after being found guilty of criminal damage last month.

Some cultural commentators have criticised the “harsh” sentences given to the protesters. Nadya Tolokonnikova, the creator of the Russian feminist art collective Pussy Riot, wrote that the action was a “carefully calibrated political statement, not the work of mindless hooligans” and said the art world should speak up to demand their release.

Sector bodies have condemned the targeting of art and cultural institutions, warning that protesters risk causing irreversible damage to heritage sites and collections. Such protests also have a detrimental impact on staff and public access, as well as coming at a high financial cost, they have said.

Museums and galleries remain on high alert as the spate of protests continues. In addition to the National Gallery, protest-related vandalism has taken place at Stonehenge, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow, and London’s Royal Academy and Courtauld Gallery in recent years.