Eco-zealots are silenced by gallery worker who orders them to ‘get off our paintings and get out’

A hero gallery worker has silenced ranting eco-zealots after they glued themselves to a painting hung in Manchester Art Gallery today, making them the third set of eco activists to target a gallery this week.

After dousing a hand each with glue, the two men from the campaign group Just Stop Oil wearing orange t-shirts with the words ‘Just Stop Oil’ written in black on their fronts both placed a hand on either side of the frame surrounding Thomson’s Aeolian Harp, a piece from 1809 by the English Romantic painter JMW Turner.

It is the third gallery to be targeted by Just Stop Oil in three days, after a Van Gogh piece in London and a Horatio McCulloch painting fell victim to protesters earlier this week.

Spray painted on the floor underneath the JMW Turner painting in Manchester today read the words, ‘no new oil’.

A hero gallery worker has silenced ranting eco-zealots after they glued themselves to a painting hung in Manchester Art Gallery today

After dousing a hand each with glue, the two men from the campaign group Just Stop Oil wearing orange t-shirts with the words ‘Just Stop Oil’ written in black on their fronts both placed a hand on either side of the frame surrounding Thomson’s Aeolian Harp, a piece from 1809 by the English Romantic painter JMW Turner

In a video recording of the protest uploaded to Twitter, a female member of staff can be heard instructing colleagues over a walkie-talkie to call 999.

One of the men can be heard in the video lecturing the gallery’s visitors about climate forecasts published in scientific journals.

A female member of staff at Manchester Art Gallery cuts the protester short, however, saying: ‘I’m not interested. No.  No. No. You’ve defaced our property…I don’t want to hear a word of what you’ve got to say.

‘So please, give us some respect by just keeping quiet…Let this be a silent protest.’

Greater Manchester Police told MailOnline that two men had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection with the incident, which lasted between 60 to 90 minutes, according to a Just Stop Oil spokesperson. 

Just Stop Oil, which has previously carried out protests at oil terminals and the UK Government offices in Edinburgh, said it is calling for art institutions to join the group in ‘civil resistance’ against climate change.

A female member of staff at Manchester Art Gallery cuts the protester short, however, saying: ‘I’m not interested. No. No. No. You’ve defaced our property…I don’t want to hear a word of what you’ve got to say

It is the third gallery to be targeted by Just Stop Oil in three days, after a Van Gogh piece in London and a Horatio McCulloch painting fell victim to protesters earlier this week

On Wednesday, two women from Just Stop Oil glued themselves to the frame of a 19th-century – Horatio McCulloch’s My Heart Is In The Highlands – at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and spray-painted their logo on the walls and floor.

Yesterday, another two protesters donning the orange Just Stop Oil t-shirts glued themselves to the frame of Vincent Van Gogh’s Peach Trees In Blossom at the Courtauld Gallery in London

A spokeswoman from Just Stop Oil today refused to say what type of adhesive had been used to glue the protesters to the masterpiece when asked by MailOnline, asking rhetorically: ‘Who honestly cares what glue they used?

‘Charges of hypocrisy are irrelevant here. Stoking division by attacking people that are sounding the alarm will not stop the fire from engulfing us all. 

Spray painted on the floor underneath the JMW Turner painting in Manchester today read the words, ‘no new oil’

See also  Countess of Wessex is twirled across the floor on a visit to Northern Ireland

In a video recording of the protest uploaded to Twitter, a female member of staff can be heard instructing colleagues over a walkie-talkie to call 999

She continued: ‘How about asking the UK government why it has decided to encourage drilling for more oil and gas when they know that it is destroying the future for these young people? 

‘Given the future of humanity is at stake, how about asking why more people are not engaging in civil resistance? 

‘How much longer are you going to ask these questions? Until the crops fail in the UK? We have 2-3 years to change direction before we are most likely committed to losing everything in the years and decades to come.’