Two climate activists have stuck themselves to a Picasso painting in Melbourne.
The two taped their hands to the acrylic sheet covering the anti-war painting "Massacre in Korea" at the Victoria State National Gallery, police said on Sunday.
Photos circulating on the Internet show the two activists pressing their hands on the Picasso, standing next to a man wearing an Extinction Rebellion T-shirt.
On the ground is a banner with the words "Climate chaos = war + hunger".
According to the police, it took about an hour to detach the two activists from the picture.
The gallery said the work was unharmed in the action.
The British daily Guardian reports that the activists were arrested and released shortly afterwards.
According to the Guardian, activists wanted to raise awareness of environmental issues ahead of Victoria's upcoming elections in November.
They would have chosen the 1951 expressionist anti-war painting to urge all governments, corporations and institutions to take action against the global environmental crisis.
The group “knew we could perform this action without damaging the artwork itself.
Our intention has always been to stick to the plexiglass that protects it," the Guardian quoted Extinction Rebellion spokesman Brad Homewood as saying.
Climate activists have repeatedly stuck to famous paintings in recent months.
In August, two activists stuck themselves to a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Berlin Picture Gallery, to the world-famous “Sistine Madonna” in Dresden, and there were similar actions in Florence and London, among other places.