Stonehenge is the most recent cultural landmark to be focused by Simply Cease Oil environmental activists, who at present sprayed the traditional web site in Wiltshire, UK, with orange powder paint.
A spokesperson for English Heritage, which oversees the monument, tells The Artwork Newspaper: “Orange powdered paint has been thrown at a lot of the stones at Stonehenge. Clearly, that is extraordinarily upsetting and our curators are investigating the extent of the injury. Stonehenge stays open to the general public.”
In a press release, Wiltshire police stated: “We’ve arrested two folks following an incident at Stonehenge this afternoon. At round midday, we responded to a report that orange paint had been sprayed on among the stones by two suspects. Officers attended the scene and arrested two folks on suspicion of damaging the traditional monument. Our inquiries are ongoing.” In line with the Guardian, members of the general public tried to cease the incident.
Simply Cease Oil named each activists in a press release (Niamh Lynch, 21, and Rajan Naidu, 73). Naidu says: “The orange cornflour we used to create an attention grabbing spectacle will quickly wash away with the rain, however the pressing want for efficient authorities motion to mitigate the catastrophic penalties of the local weather and ecological disaster won’t.”
Simply Cease Oil provides that it’s “demanding that the incoming UK authorities decide to working with different governments to agree an equitable plan to finish the extraction and burning of oil, fuel and coal by 2030”. The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak condemned the incident nevertheless, telling The Guardian: “This can be a disgraceful act of vandalism to one of many UK’s and the world’s oldest and most necessary monuments.”
Beforehand, Simply Cease Oil protests have focused the Magna Carta on the British Library in London and artworks together with Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers(1888) on the capital’s Nationwide Gallery.
UPDATE (20 June): The orange powder paint sprayed onto a part of Stonehenge has since been eliminated. The English Heritage chief govt, Nick Merriman, informed BBC Radio 4 that there gave the impression to be “no seen injury” to the 5,000-year-old landmark after consultants cleaned the location which will probably be open for Summer time Solstice celebrations from 19:00 on 20 June.