Italian environmental protesters have thrown pea soup over a Vincent Van Gogh painting on display in Rome before gluing themselves to the wall of the gallery.

The stunt directed at The Sower was carried out by four women from the group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) who shouted slogans against global warming and fossil fuels.

“These issues should be on the front pages of the news channels and political agendas every minute but are instead only addressed with ‘scandalous’ actions like the one this morning,” the group said in a statement.

Representatives from nearly 200 countries will gather in Egypt next week for the COP27 climate change conference as pressure for tougher action to tackle global warming grows.

The Sower is part of an exhibition at the historical Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome’s city centre.

The painting, on loan from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the Netherlands, was protected by a glass screen and did not suffer damage, exhibition organiser spokeswoman Camilla Talfani said.

Climate change protesters threw soup over Van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery last month, causing minor damage to the frame.