Two climate activists recently received pardons after convictions and payments for property damage after gluing their hands to the frame of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna in 2022.
The protest took place at the 16-century altar painting in the Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery on August 23, 2022. The two protestors, members of the German environmental group Letzte Generation (Last Generation), entered the gallery and attached one hand each to the frame of the world-famous artwork.
While the artwork was not damaged, the demonstration left traces of superglue on the frame, harming its protective finish, and resulting in property damages of around €2,300.
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Soon after the protest in 2022, the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, more commonly called SKD) filed a complaint with the city’s public prosecutor’s office for “damage to property that is harmful to the community” and initiated civil proceedings for damages. The two protestors were also banned from all 15 of SKD’s institutions.
In 2023, the prosecutor’s office requested the protestors each pay €1,500 for “community damage to property.” Then, last year, the Dresden District Court sentenced the protestors each to a fine of €600 for joint property damage, after the protestors had appealed against penalty orders of €1,500.
But, after a recent appeal, the Dresden Regional Court legally halved the protestors’ fine to €300 after considering the ongoing restitution process as a mitigating factor, according to a report by German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).
Since the incident, both protestors have paid over €2,000 in damages to the Dresden State Art Collections.
Last September, the two protestors agreed to a different settlement in a damages case brought by the Free State of Saxony to pay €5,500. Saxony had requested nearly €10,400 in damages to compensate for repair costs and lost revenue due to the temporary closure of the famous museum.