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 16th-century altar painting in the Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery August 23, 2022. The two protesters, 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 protesters were also banned from all 15 of SKD’s institutions.
In 2023 the prosecutor’s office requested the protesters each pay €1,500 for “community damage to property.” Then, last year, the Dresden District Court sentenced the protesters each to a fine of €600 for joint property damage, after the protesters had appealed penalty orders of €1,500.
But, after a recent appeal, the Dresden Regional Court legally halved the protesters’ 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 protesters have paid more than €2,000 in damages to the Dresden State Art Collections.
Last September, the protesters 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.
