Italian climate activists who threw vegetable soup over a Van Gogh painting at an exhibition in Rome on Friday risk hefty fines and up to five years in prison, according to news reports in Italy.There was no damage caused to the 1888 painting which was protected by glass and was returned to the exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte on Sunday after being assessed by experts from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam who flew to Rome.The moment climate activists in Rome throw vegetable soup over a Van Gogh masterpiece.pic.twitter.com/WKoKlNbwPJ— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) November 4, 2022The activists now face charges of "damaging, despoiling, vandalising, and the illicit use of cultural property", with penalties including jail sentences of between two and five years and fines of between €2,500 and €15,000.Rome motorists react furiously to the latest roadblock protest by climate activists today.pic.twitter.com/Z3JsnlDH6I— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) November 2, 2022The incident was harshly condemned by Italy's new culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano as well as by the nation's far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni who described it as "vandalism, pure and simple".Ultima Generazione responded to Meloni's post on social media, reports RAI News: "We learn from Facebook that the Premier Giorgia Meloni is strongly outraged by a dirty glass in a museum and not by the effects of the climate collapse", adding: "Ours is not vandalism but the cry of alarm of desperate citizens.""