Activists throw black liquid on a painting

The latest in a series of protests against the Government's use of fossil fuels, climate activists threw black liquid on painter Gustav Klimt's artwork 'Death and Life' at the Leopold Museum in Vienna on Tuesday.

According to The Hill, members of the group Last Generation Austria tweeted they had targeted the 1915 painting "Death and Life" at the Leopold Museum in Vienna to protest their government's use of fossil energies.

A video shared on the Twitter account of the campaign group Last Generation showed two protestors at the Leopold Museum, on them threw black liquid on the artwork, which he brought in a hot water bag, while the other one glued his hands to the glass over the painting.

After throwing liquid, the security official at the museum pushed one of the protestors away.

In a video of the incident, which the group posted online, one of the activists can be heard shouting, "We have known about the problem for 50 years. We must finally act, otherwise, the planet will be broken.".

"Stop the fossil fuel destruction. We are racing into a climate hell," he added.

After the attack, police arrived at the museum and the black liquid was quickly cleaned off the glass protecting the painting, The Hill reported citing Austria Press Agency.

Austrian culture minister Andrea Mayer criticised the form of protest and said, "I do not believe that actions like these are purposeful, because the question arises whether they do not rather lead to more lack of understanding than to more awareness of the climate catastrophe. From my point of view, accepting the risk of irrevocable damage to works of art is the wrong way to go. Art and culture are allies in the fight against climate catastrophe, not adversaries," as per The Hill.

The Klimt work is an oil on canvas painting in the Art Nouveau style depicting death on the left side and a group of partially naked, hugging people on the right side. It's one of the latest pieces of art to be targeted by climate activists to draw attention to global warming, as per reports of The Hill.

Previously, in London, environmental activists from the group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup on Van Gogh's 'The Sunflowers' painting at London's National Gallery as a sign of protest.