Activists glue themselves to one of the Vatican Museum’s most famous statues. Italy’s Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) climate crisis action group want to highlight the lack of political will to addess climate issues.
On Thursday, activists glued themselves to the Laocoön statue holding a placard saying, “no gas and no coal”.
The statue is one of the most famous works of Greek and Roman antiquity. It shows the Trojan priest and his two sons being killed by sea snakes sent by Poseidon.
Ultima Generazione said in a statement, “Like Laocoön, scientists and activists are witnesses trying to warn those around them of the consequences that today’s actions will have on the future.
“Like Laocoön, scientists and activists are not being listened to. Or even worse, they are being silenced by the political world, which is more interested in defending the privileges of a minority than proving for the good of the community”.
Laura, one of the two activists who glued themselves to the statue, said “the statue recalls the sad fate which the Greek (sic) priest suffered in the attempt to save himself, his children and all the citizens”, reports Ansa.
“In our movement there are parents, there are children, united by the will to push the world of politics to make the right choices to curb climate change before it is too late”.
Last month, activists from the same group glued themselves to a Botticelli at the Uffizi.
Laocoön and His Sons
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons was excavated in Rome in 1506. Placed on public display in the Vatican Museums, it is likely the same statue praised by Pliny the Elder.
The figures are near life-size. Together, the group is just over 2 m in height. It shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents.
The statutory is described as “the prototypical icon of human agony” in Western art. Unlike the agony often depicted in Christian art, this suffering has no redemptive power or reward.
Pliny attributes the work to three Greek sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus. However, he does not give a date or patron.
In style it is considered “one of the finest examples of the Hellenistic baroque” and certainly in the Greek tradition. It is not known whether it is an original work or a copy of an earlier sculpture.
