This is not how you celebrate Columbus Day.
A pair of crazed climate activists were busted Sunday after hurling red paint at a mural of Christopher Columbus — in a bizarre caught-on-camera art attack at a Spanish museum.
The two vandals, members of the radical group “Futuro Vegetal,” were caught on shocking video throwing red paint at “First Tribute to Christopher Columbus,” a massive mural of the Italian-born explorer painted in 1892 by artist Jose Garnelo and displayed at Madrid’s Naval Museum, Spain’s El Pais reported.
The activist group, whose name loosely translates to “Vegetarian Future,” also unfurled a banner reading, “October 12, nothing to celebrate. Ecosocial justice,” the outlet reported.
Spain, which funded the explorer’s voyage in 1492, celebrates it’s version of Columbus Day on October 12, while the holiday is being celebrated on Monday in the US.
The footage of the museum stunt shows two women throwing red paint on the mural, and then quickly being confronted by a security guard, who drags them away from the artwork with the help of bystanders.
According to El Pais, the activists, who were not immediately identified, were taken into custody by museum security and were later arrested and charged with crimes against cultural heritage.
Luna Lagos, a spokesperson for the activist group, said the holiday “celebrates centuries of oppression and genocide against the indifenous people of Abya Yala,” the indigenous name for the Americas.
The group also staged a sit-in on Sunday around Pablo Picaso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofia Museum.
Columbus’ voyages are the subject of controversy among many, but the explorer is widely credited with opening the way for European settlement of the Americas, and is particularly the subject of national pride for Italians and Italian-Americans, including in New York City.
