Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans Targeted by Climate Activists at National Gallery of Australia | Andy Warhol

Climate protesters have scrawled on Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans, one of the National Gallery of Australia’s prized pieces of modern art.

Pictures released by activists showed some blue scratches on the work, called Campbell’s Soup I, but it appears the prints themselves were under glass frames and were undamaged.

The group Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies said in a statement on Wednesday that it wants the Australian government to end support for the oil, gas and coal industry.

It said it was part of a global civil resistance network known as A22.

Bonnie Cassen, who the statement said was participating in the protest Canberra,” said Warhol in the iconic series depicting consumerism gone mad.

“And now we have capitalism gone mad,” he said. “Families are forced to choose between medicine and food for their children, while fossil fuel companies are making record profits. And yet our government subsidizes the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $22,000 a minute.”

One person tried to stick one of the pictures, but was quickly removed before the glue set.

The incident comes after similar protests involving famous artworks abroad, including a German environmental group throwing mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting at the Potsdam Museum and Just Stop Oil activists Pouring tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers At the National Gallery in London.

The gallery said in a statement: “A protest has been held at the National Gallery of Australia following similar incidents in Australia and overseas”.

“The National Gallery does not wish to promote these actions and has no further comment.”

An ACT Policing spokesman said officers responded to an incident involving two people at the gallery, but no arrests had been made.