Protesters from around the world gathered at the Louvre in Paris today, calling on the museum to cancel sponsorship contracts with the oil companies Total and Eni. The demonstrations coincided with COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change (30 November-11 December).
Activists spelt out the words “Fossil Free Culture” in umbrellas outside the museum near IM Pei’s famous glass pyramid, while ten demonstrators were arrested after walking barefoot through fake oil spilled on the floor of the museum atrium. According to the New Internationalist magazine, hundreds of activists chanted: “Total and Eni, out of the Louvre, allez allez allez!”
The participating groups included Art Not Oil from the UK, GULF (US), Not An Alternative (US), Stopp Oljesponssing av Norsk Kulturliv (Norway) and Liberate Tate (UK). The latter occupied Tate Modern in June as part of its ongoing protests against the gallery’s links with BP.
“We know that the COP is not en route to give us the deal we need to stay within a safe lim it of global warming,” says Ragnhild Freng Dale of Stopp Oljesponsing Av Norsk Kulturliv in a statement. “We need to separate our cultural institutions and the climate negotiations from oil companies’ influence.”
Eni sponsored the recent Louvre exhibition Poussin and God, which ended in June. Total Foundation is backing the current exhibition A Brief History of the Future (until 4 January 2016). Officials at the Louvre, Eni and Total could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
