Why a 150-year-old vagina painting has been vandalised by #MeToo activists

The attack on famous artworks as a form of protest continues. The latest target was French artist Gustave Courbet. In a controversial act of defiance at France’s Centre Pompidou-Metz museum on Monday, Courbet's iconic painting ‘The Origin of the World’ was defaced by two women activists.

The 19th-century nude painting featuring a woman’s vulva was boldly spray painted “Me too” by two activists in a stunt by a performance artist, a museum and the artist confirmed.

The artwork which was loaned from Musee d'Orsay in Paris for an exhibition, was protected under a "glass pane" and the police were on site to assess the damage, the Centre Pompidou in the northeastern city of Metz told AFP.

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A ‘feminist’ performance

French-Luxembourgish performance artist Deborah de Robertis told AFP she had organised the spray painting in red, carried out by two other people, as part of a performance titled: ‘You Don't Separate the Woman from the Artist’.

In a video sent to AFP by de Robertis, one woman tags Courbet's famous painting with red paint and then another one. They then chanted "MeToo" before being dragged away by security guards.

Metz prosecutor Yves Badorc said two women, aged 38 and 31, had been arrested after five works in total, including Courbet's nude, had been sprayed with the words "MeToo".

Earlier this year, two climate activists threw soup at world-famous Mona Lisa. AFP

A third person, who has not been detained, is believed to have stolen another artwork, he said.

The stolen piece, red embroidery on white material by French artist Annette Messager, is called ‘I Think Therefore I Suck’.

The artist says her actions were a feminist performance, carried out because “the very closed world of contemporary art has remained largely silent until now”.

‘Wanted to challenge the history of art’

In an open letter, de Robertis denounced the behaviour of six men in the art world, describing them as "predators" and "censors".

The artist justified her act saying that she wanted to highlight the “misogynistic divide” in the art world. She said she wanted to "challenge the history of art", in particular by tagging "MeToo" on the famous painting "because women are the origin of the world".

De Robertis adds in her statement, “I call on all women, with or without vulvas, all intersex, trans and non-binary people, and all underrepresented people—whether artists, assistants or interns in the art world—to dare to express yourself.”

The artist said they had also targeted another work by Austrian artist Valie Export.

De Robertis had a piece exhibited at the venue: a photograph capturing her 2014 performance at the Musee d'Orsay, where she posed naked beneath Courbet's painting.

‘Artwork is not a poster’

French culture minister Rachida Dati took to X to condemn the act.

"To 'activists' who think that art is not powerful enough to carry a message alone... An artwork is not a poster to colour in with the day's message," she wrote in her post.

Metz mayor Francois Grosdidier, called the act "a new attack on culture, this time by fanatic feminists".

Not the first for European museums

Some of Europe’s greatest artworks have been targeted recently.

After being saved from an attack of food cream in 2022, earlier this year, two climate change activists hurled hot soup at the protective glass in front of the world-famous Mona Lisa at Paris’ Louvre Museum.

Vincent Van Gogh's 'Sunflower' was splattered with tomato soup by environmental activists at London's National Gallery in 2022.

Last year, environment activists smeared red paint and glued their hands to the protective glass on a Monet painting at Stockholm's National Museum before being arrested by the police.

With inputs from AFP