They had glued themselves to the frame of a Rubens painting with their fingertips. Prosecutors asked for six months in prison.
After a sticking action in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, the district court there sentenced three activists of the last generation to fines. In August 2022, two men aged 25 and 60 stuck their fingertips to a gold-plated frame of a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, and a 24-year-old filmed the action.
The court convicted the men of damaging property. The public prosecutor had demanded six months in prison, the defense attorneys had pleaded for acquittal and justified this, among other things, with an emergency in the climate crisis.
The judge affirmed an emergency situation. The climate crisis represents a current danger. However, there is not even a remote connection between climate protection and damage to the frame. The decision is not yet final – the 24-year-old has already announced that he wants to appeal.
Source: Stern
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