Climate Activist Group Who Staged Protests in Prado Museum Defaces Walmart Heiress’ Yacht

Two climate activists reportedly defaced a yacht belonging to Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie on July 16, drawing parallels to similar climate protests at art museums worldwide. 

The activists, who belong to the Spanish environmental group Futuro Vegetal, vandalized the stern of the $300 million yacht and displayed signs that read “You consume, others suffer.” 

“The richest 1 percent of the world population pollutes more than the poorest 50 percent,” the pair can be heard saying in a video posted to Twitter. “They are destroying our planet, compromising its habitability, all to lead a completely unreasonable lifestyle.”

They were arrested and released on Monday, the organization said in a statement. They were charged with inflicting damage and held for around a day.

Some members of the Walton family are prodigious art collectors and patrons. Walton Laurie is the cousin of collector and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art founder Alice Walton and Olivia Walton, chairperson of that institution’s board.

Futuro Vegetal, meanwhile, has staged several high-profile climate demonstrations at cultural institutions worldwide. In November, members of the group glued themselves to Francisco Goya’s paintings The Clothed Maja and The Naked Maja, which are exhibited in Madrid’s Prado Museum, and wrote “1.5 C” on the wall next to the painting—a reference to a UN report referenced that found that the Earth’s temperature will rise between 2.4 degrees Celsius and 2.6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

Later that same November, Futuro Vegetal targeted a replica mummy at the Egyptian Museum in Barcelona to protest the climate conference COP27, which was taking place in Egypt at the time.