Climate Activists Deface Christopher Columbus Painting on Day Marking His Arrival to Americas
ARTnews ^ | October 13, 2025 | Tessa Solomon
Posted on 10/13/2025 1:57:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Two activists from the climate group Futuro Vegetal were arrested on Sunday, October 12, the date Spain commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, after throwing biodegradable red paint on a painting of Columbus at the Naval Museum in Madrid.
Per reports from El Confidencial and El País, the paint damaged the left portion of José Garnelo’s 1892 First Tribute to Christopher Columbus, which is displayed at the museum entrance. The activists also unfurled a banner reading “October 12, nothing to celebrate. Ecosocial justice.” Futuro Vegetal said in a statement that the incident aimed to call attention to the “extractive neocolonialism” that continues to exploit Indigenous land and natural resources. Museum security detained the activists, who were later charged with crimes against cultural heritage and taken for questioning.
October 12 is the National Day of Spain, marking the moment in 1492 when Christopher Columbus’ expedition landed on an island in the Americas under the Spanish flag, heralding the nation’s new era of global influence. While the holiday is a grand celebration in the Spanish capital of Madrid, with smaller festivities held throughout the nation, it is also a source of contention across the Spanish-speaking world.
Critics argue that Spain should more openly acknowledge that Columbus’s legacy includes the death of tens of millions of Indigenous people, and enslavement of countless more at the hands of Europeans. In Mexico, for example, the day was renamed Día de la Nación Pluricultural (Day of the Pluricultural Nation), and in Argentina, it is called the Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity).
Futuro Vegetal spokesperson Luna Lagos said Spain’s National Day “celebrates centuries of oppression and genocide against the Indigenous peoples of Abya Yala,” using an Indigenous name for the Americas. The group also called for boycotts of companies linked to extractive projects.
Elsewhere on Sunday in Madrid, some 20 activists from Marea Palestina staged a sit-in around Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofía Museum. The protest demanded an end to “the genocide against the Palestinian people.” The museum gallery closed temporarily while security addressed the action, and has since been reopened.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: art; christophercolumbus; climateactivists; ecoterrorism; futurovegetal; lunalagos; moonbats
1 posted on 10/13/2025 1:57:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
To: nickcarraway
So there you have it: celebrating Columbus Day causes Global Warming.
2 posted on 10/13/2025 2:01:36 PM PDT by Tzimisce ( )
To: nickcarraway; All
So... They want to celebrate thousands of years of genocide, slavery, and oppression by the “indegenous peoples”?
The Spaniards were allied with tribes the Aztecs enslaved, oppressed, gave in human sacrifices and ate.
Genocide, oppression, and slavery were not new to the Americas.
3 posted on 10/13/2025 2:04:10 PM PDT by marktwain
To: Tzimisce
Amazing how people have little trouble getting inside European museums carrying paint
4 posted on 10/13/2025 2:06:23 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (24 years on Free Republic, 12/10/24! More than 10,500 replies and still not shutting up!)
To: nickcarraway
“Activists...”? It shat what you call them.
How about “Criminals...”
5 posted on 10/13/2025 2:07:30 PM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
To: nickcarraway
Columbus brought civilization to the new world. Everything these degenerates enjoy is owed to Europeans.
6 posted on 10/13/2025 2:10:25 PM PDT by Organic Panic ('Was I molested. I think so' - Ashley Biden in response to her father joining her in the shower.)
To: Organic Panic
I wouldn’t say there was no civilization. After all, Mayans had the zero a long, long time before Europe did.
7 posted on 10/13/2025 2:13:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
To: nickcarraway
Don’t agree with it just destroy it , morons
8 posted on 10/13/2025 2:18:22 PM PDT by butlerweave (Fateh)
To: nickcarraway
Gosh, now we don’t know who discovered America.
To: nickcarraway
Well, their hearts were in the right place so $10 fine.
10 posted on 10/13/2025 3:53:21 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
To: nickcarraway
sounds like a hate crime to me
To: If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
America was discovered in 986 by Bjarni Herjolfsson (who got lost trying to find Greenland).
To: nickcarraway
Ecosocial justice.
The perfect punishment would be for them to be chain-ganged and forced to pick boll weevils off organic cotton plants and then prepare indigenous recipes for the bugs for dinner.
13 posted on 10/13/2025 4:46:54 PM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.”)
To: nickcarraway
Climate Activists protest Columbus who used a wind powered vessel.
14 posted on 10/13/2025 4:57:51 PM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys-Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat-But they know what's best for you.)
To: j.havenfarm
“Amazing how people have little trouble getting inside European museums carrying paint”
Their cops are about as useless as ours at preventing desecration of revered and priceless artifacts.
15 posted on 10/13/2025 5:39:37 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
To: Organic Panic
Columbus brought civilization to the new world. Everything these degenerates enjoy is owed to Europeans.
= = =
If Columbus had not brought that civilization, then what would have evolution and random accidents brought about in the new world?
16 posted on 10/13/2025 7:03:35 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT. And I am generally full of /S)
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