Steve Price clashes with Picasso protestors
Steve Price has clashed with a climate protestor who glued his hand to a Picasso painting in Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria.
Police were called to the gallery on Sunday after two protesters stuck themselves to Picasso’s Massacre in Korea, which was being exhibited as part of The Picasso Century program.
Climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for the protest in a video of the incident, which was live-streamed on Facebook.
The video showed two protesters unfurling a flag which read “Climate Chaos = War + Famine”.
“We are in a climate, ecological crisis,” a female protester said with her left hand stuck to the painting.
Appearing on The Project on Monday, one of the protesters – retired teacher Tony Gleeson – said the purpose of their actions was to raise awareness about climate change.
However, Steve Price wasn't buying his arguments, and said the group's logic behind the protest was flawed.
“Why wouldn’t you go and glue your silly hand to a power station rather than a painting in a gallery when that painting is worth so much money?” Price asked.
Mr Gleeson insisted he was never going to damage the painting because it was protected by a perspex shield.
“We knew beforehand that painting was covered and it was carefully planned, we knew that it was covered and we knew that there was no chance of it being damaged,” Mr Gleeson said.
“You can frame that whichever way you want, and you will. It’s your job to be provocative like that but I’m not going to wear it.”
Price said he was “just being honest” and “speaking for the majority of people who don’t want vandals sticking their hands on perplex covering a Picasso with glue”.
“They would rather if you want to protest, go and do that somewhere else,” he added.
Mr Gleeson said his radical group had plans to do exactly that over in coming weeks.
“Yeah, great,” Price replied, sarcastically.
Image credits: The Project