The National Gallery said that a painting by famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson was not damaged when an environmental activist tried to vandalize it on Tuesday. It is worth an estimated one million dollars..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, while putting pink paint all over the painting, the environmental activist from British Columbia recorded himself on Instagram..“Fortunately, the artwork was not harmed during the incident,” the Gallery said in a statement. The canvas was protected by a glazed panel..“The safety and security of our staff and visitors and of our collection remains our highest priority,” said curators. .“This type of incident is unfortunate.”.READ MORE Climate protester splashes paint on artwork in the National Gallery of Canada.Northern River, painted by Thomson at Ontario’s Algonquin Park, was purchased by Parliament in 1915 for $500, the modern equivalent of $13,000. The landscape has been on permanent display and public tour for over a century..Thomson passed away in 1917. One of his paintings Nocturne, which shows a landscape scene in Ontario, was sold in 2022 for $1.5 million..Kaleb Suedfeld of Langley, B.C., a self-described street musician, was arrested by Ottawa constables on a mischief charge. Suedfeld said he was protesting on behalf of an environmental group called On2Ottawa..The group alerted the media minutes before the incident that Suedfeld would attempt to vandalize the painting “to demand an appropriate government response to the national wildfire crisis.” .Suedfeld put paint all over the display and then read out a statement that was recorded for Instagram..“Are you shocked?” Suedfeld asked the camera..“We are shocked the governments of the world, including our own are allowing this beautiful planet, this work of art, to be gutted and burned to fill the pockets of fossil fuel plutocrats.”.“Save this work of art that we call planet Earth,” said Suedfeld. .“This must stop or we will not stop disrupting. We demand climate action now.”.On March 2, environmental activists vandalized a woolly mammoth display at the Royal B.C. Museum..On April 15, environmental activists threw pink paint on a federal heritage building where the Prime Minister’s Office is located..“We are ordinary Canadians stepping into nonviolent civil disobedience to get urgent government action on the climate crisis,” On2Ottawa said in a statement..“Life as we know it is falling apart. Extreme weather events and mass species extinction cover the globe. The government has failed to implement the radical change we need. We are facing the unravelling of the ecological, social and economic systems that underpin our lives. Don’t be a dupe to the government’s smoke and mirrors!”
