Remember King Charles III’s portrait? It’s the one in which he is either looking like a noble environmentalist or a man wholly consumed by the blood upon which his empire was built, depending on who you ask. The painting was the target of some animation-inspired vandalism on Tuesday when an animal rights group defaced it.
Animal Rising, an animal-rights organization in the U.K., shared video of two members affixing the head of Wallace from the Wallace and Gromit cartoons onto Charles’s image. They also included a speech bubble that read, “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!” The message alluded to farms certified by the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, a British charity that Charles became the royal patron of last month.
Apparently, Charles is a big fan of the animated series, so the group used it to catch his attention. “Even though we hope this is amusing to His Majesty, we also call on him to seriously reconsider if he wants to be associated with the awful suffering across farms being endorsed by the RSPCA,” one of the people involved said in a statement released by Animal Rising.
If you were concerned about the art, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Jonathan Yeo’s portrait was not actually harmed, as Animal Rising noted, “The posters were affixed using water sprayed onto the bag of them and are easily removable without causing damage to the painting.” Well, thank God for that!
