Art attack!
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Phoebe Plummer
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Gallery / 8 images

Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after smashing the glass covering Diego Velázquez’s painting The Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery.

The climate justice protest group released a video on Twitter on Monday (November 6), which showed two protestors smashing the glass of the 17th-century painting. The painting was previously slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914 as part of the campaign for women’s suffrage.

The protestors then addressed gallery visitors. “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words. It is time to Just Stop Oil,” said Hanan, 22, one of the protesters. The other, 20-year-old Harrison, added: “Politics is failing us. Politics failed women in 1914. If millions will die due to new oil and gas licences – millions – if we love history, if we love art, and if we love our families we must Just Stop Oil.”

The video posted on social media then asked viewers to join Just Stop Oil on a march through London on November 18.

The action followed the news that a new law allowing new oil and gas licences to be introduced every year will be announced in the King’s Speech on Tuesday.

The Met Police said two activists had been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.