Brian McDonald
The glass case containing an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library in London was broken by two environmental activists on Friday, causing minor damage to the reinforced case but leaving the historic document unharmed.
The pair of protesters from Just Stop Oil, a group that caused widespread disruption in Britain in its campaign to end the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, hit the case with hammer and chisel.
Video footage posted online it shows Reverend Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, an 85-year-old retired biology teacher, holding a sign that says “The government is breaking the law”, before gluing themselves to the screen.
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The pair released a statement saying the document was aimed at highlighting the dangers of climate change.
“The Magna Carta is rightly revered, being of great importance to our history, our freedoms and our laws,” said Parfitt. “But there will be no freedom, no legality, no rights if we allow climate breakdown to become the catastrophe it is now threatened with.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said two people were arrested.
The library’s security team intervened to prevent further damage to the case of the Magna Carta, considered one of the founding documents of Western democracy.
The Treasures Gallery is temporarily closed until further notice, the library said.
This was the latest public display of vandalism against famous works of art and historic pieces.
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In January, two climate activists from the Food Riposte group threw soup onto the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris. Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting was also the target of attacks in 2022, when a man disguised as an elderly woman in a wheelchair cream cake smeared in paint.
In October 2023, five Just Stop Oil activists were arrested in London after storming the stage of a West End production of Les Misérables. Protesters took to the stage with orange banners saying “The show cannot go on” during the song “ Do You Hear the People Sing.” They also locked themselves in part of the set with bicycle locks. The group also targeted Johannes Vermeer’s iconic painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, Netherlands, in October 2022.
Also in 2022, two climate activists threw mashed potatoes in Claude Monet’s “Les Meules” and then pasted themselves underneath the painting at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany. The painting was not damaged during the incident.
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Also last year, climate activists turned the water in Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain black. fossil fuel industry protest.
