The incident occurred on June 14, 2023 when two women dipped their hands in paint and glued their hands to "The Artist's Garden at Giverny", painted by French impressionist Claude Monet in 1900 and on display at Stockholm's National Museum.

The organisation Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) posted a video on Facebook at the time where the two women, one a nurse and the other a nursing student, could be seen smearing the paint and gluing their hands to the glass.

The two then shouted: "The (climate) situation is acute" and "our health is threatened".

The Orsay Museum in Paris, which owns the work, said the following day that the painting had not been damaged.

But the two women, along with four others, were charged with vandalism.

The activists acknowledged their roles in the action but denied any intention of damaging the artwork, and said the action was done out of necessity as a result of "the climate crisis," according to the court.

The activists claimed they had deliberately chosen a painting with protective glass and used paint which would be easy to remove.

In its ruling, the court found that it did not seem like the activists had intended to cause any lasting damage to the painting, even though some paint ended up on the frame.

They were thus freed of the charges and did not need to pay any damages, the court said.

Per Hedstrom, director of exhibitions at the National Museum, told AFP that it had been important that the case went to trial since even though the activists were freed the incident had led to "a lot of work" cleaning up.

Hedstrom said he could not comment on the court's reasoning but said he worried the case could lead to other similar actions.

"It's hard not to interpret this as a potential signal that it would be ok to do things like this, as long as the purpose is generally considered good," he said.