Activists and artists have launched a faux attack on one of Australia's most famous paintings to protest a gas company's alleged destruction of rock art in Western Australia's north.
Video released by Disrupt Burrup Hub on Thursday shows ceramic artist Joana Partyka spray painting a Woodside logo onto Fredrick McCubbin's Down On His Luck at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
She then appears to glue her hand to the wall beside the colonial masterpiece as Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton lays an Aboriginal flag on the floor of the gallery.
"As I stand here today, artwork that is sacred to our people is being destroyed in WA," he says to the camera after taking off a shirt to reveal a T-shirt displaying the group's name.
"Woodside Petroleum has the largest fossil fuel project in Australia (and) they are destroying ancient Murujuga rock art."
Mr Blurton says the group wants industrial development stopped on the rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula, 20 kilometres west of Karratha in the Pilbara region.
"This painting is barely 100 years old. We have 50,000-year-old artwork that Woodside is destroying," he says, pointing to Mr McCubbin's 1889 oil on canvas work.
The group said the artwork was protected by clear plastic sheeting and not damaged by the paint.
The Burrup Peninsula, known as Murujuga to traditional owners, contains the largest and oldest collection of rock art in the world.
