A UK jury has convicted two activists from the group Youth Demand of criminal damage after they covered a Picasso painting with a photograph of a Palestinian mother and child during a protest at the National Gallery in London. The activists also poured red paint inside the gallery during the incident, according to The Telegraph (The Telegraph). The conviction was reported on 27 July 2026.

The two protesters attached a Gaza-related image to the surface of the Picasso, which hangs in the National Gallery's collection — one of the United Kingdom's most visited museums, sitting on the north side of Trafalgar Square. The photograph they placed over the painting depicted a Palestinian mother and child, a detail confirmed by both The Telegraph and the Daily Mail (Daily Mail). Red paint was poured in the gallery space as part of the same action.

The group behind the protest, Youth Demand, has staged a series of direct-action demonstrations in British institutions over the past year, using civil disobedience — public, non-violent law-breaking intended to draw attention to a cause — as its primary tactic. In this instance, the protest targeted the gallery itself: the painting's surface and the museum's interior.

A jury found both individuals guilty of criminal damage, the charge that covers physical harm to property under English law. The charge carries a range of possible penalties depending on the monetary value of the damage and whether the offence is tried summarily — in a magistrates' court without a jury — or on indictment, which involves a Crown Court and a jury. This case proceeded through the jury system.

ARTnews and the Jewish Chronicle both identified the defendants as members of Youth Demand, a pro-Palestinian protest group (ARTnews; Jewish Chronicle).

The conviction adds another chapter to a wave of protest actions at major cultural institutions in the UK and across Europe, where activists have glued themselves to paintings, thrown soup at protective glass, and otherwise targeted artworks to generate publicity for political causes — particularly around the war in Gaza. Museum directors have repeatedly warned that such actions risk irreversible harm to objects held in public trust, even when protective glazing prevents direct contact with the paint surface.