Climate activists smear red paint on Monet artwork at Stockholm museum

June 15 (UPI) -- Two climate activists smeared red paint on a Monet painting Wednesday at Stockholm National Museum before gluing their hands to the artwork's protective glass and shouting at onlookers.

A video released by the organization Aterstall Vatmarker, which means Restore Wetlands, showed a nurse and nursing student smearing paint on The Artist's Garden in Giverny, by French impressionist Claude Monet.

The activists shouted "the climate situation is acute" and "our health is threatened."

"The situation is urgent. As a nurse, I refuse to watch," one of the women, named Emma, said. "The pandemic was nothing compared to the climate collapse. It's about life or death."

"People won't just die from heat stroke. New diseases will spread, and we cannot even imagine the extent of this," she added.

Police arrested the women for "aggravated vandalism."

"It is unclear whether more people than the two arrested are involved in the incident, but a number of people have been checked and the police will, among other things, review the course of events with the help of the museum's surveillance cameras," the Stockholm Region police said in a statement.

Helen Wahlgren, a spokesperson for Restore Wetlands, said the activists were trying to pressure the Swedish government to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"We should lower our emissions by 31%. But our emissions are still increasing," she said, adding that the "gorgeous gardens like those in Monet's painting will soon be a distant memory."

The painting, which was completed in 1900 and was encased in glass, is currently being examined to determine if there was any damage, according to the museum.

This is not the first time a painting has been attacked by climate activists. In October, two activists threw tomato soup on a Vincent Van Gogh painting in London. They pleaded not guilty to criminal charges for damaging the artwork's frame.

"We distance ourselves from actions where art or cultural heritage are put at risk of damage," Per Hedström, the National Museum's acting director general, said Wednesday.

"Cultural heritage has great symbolic value, and it is unacceptable to attack or destroy it, for any purpose whatsoever."