Eco-activists who daubed Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate with orange and yellow paint have been told they’ll have to foot the GBP 100,000 repair bill.
Protestors left six of the iconic 18th-century German monument’s neoclassical columns covered in paint after using a hydraulic platform to reach the top in the September stunt.
Now members of the Just Stop Oil-style group Last Generation have been told they’ll get the bill for cleaning the landmark.
Berlin’s Finance Senator Stefan Evers told local media on 30th October: “The high cleaning efforts and the enormous costs of more than EUR 100,000 emphasise the dimension of this criminal act.
“We will ensure that the citizens of Berlin will not have to pay for it. Prosecution and compensation are our aims.”
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member explained: “A six-figure sum is what we are talking about. The estimate is EUR 115,000 (GBP 99,965).”
Evers said the activists would receive the bill from the city hall as soon as the overall costs have been totted up.
Fourteen people were interrogated by police after the incident and state prosecution knows their identities, said Evers.
He added: “The state prosecution is going to inform us of their names and addresses. Our lawyers are already on it.”
Meanwhile, experts are trying to establish the best way to remove the paint.
The activists had posed as film students working on an outdoor shoot high-level shoot when they used the lifts to coat the columns.
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Story By: Thomas Hochwarter, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
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