The story behind the recent attacks on art.
“What is worth more, art or life?” That’s the question one climate activist posed after throwing a can of soup on a van Gogh. Protestors are pulling similar stunts to draw attention to the climate crisis. Here’s a closer look at these protests and the buzz (and conspiracy theories) surrounding them.
Food for thought?
Museum protests are having a moment. In May, a man smashed a piece of cake onto the Mona Lisa, yelling “Think of the Earth! There are people who are destroying the Earth! Think about it,” while he was escorted out of the Louvre.
That served as inspiration for recent protests orchestrated by Just Stop Oil, a U.K. group focused on highlighting the possibility of expanded oil drilling off England’s coast. Mel Carrington, a spokesperson for the organization, told The New York Times that they had tried more conventional protests like “sitting in the roads” or “blocking oil terminals” but received “virtually zero press coverage.”
Then earlier this month, two protestors tossed a can of soup on a masterpiece and glued their hands to the wall. The point was not only press attention — which they received plenty of — but to shock people into feeling the loss of something the world holds dear.
“When you think about it, this is what we face with climate collapse,” Carrington said. “The loss of everything we love.”
This in turn inspired activists in Germany to follow suit. “I realized it was genius,” a spokesperson for the German organization Last Generation told the Times. “People got shocked, and then this window opens where they start listening.”
This week, two members of the group hurled mashed potatoes onto Monet’s “Grainstacks” in a Potsdam museum.
All of the works were protected by glass and none were harmed in the protests.
Are these museum protests effective?
The stunts have sparked a debate about how effective these protests really are. Though the organizations specifically targeted paintings they knew wouldn’t be damaged by soup or potatoes, many people were upset that these cultural artifacts were even threatened and wrote the protest off as misguided.
“Let’s stop giving these attention-seeking adult toddlers the converge they clearly crave,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted.
Conspiracy theories also began circulating on social media that the group was actually paid by “big oil” and the stunt was a way to discredit real activists. People pushing this claim note that oil heiress Aileen Getty has made major donations to the Climate Emergency Fund, a nonprofit that supports both Just Stop Oil and Last Generation.
That may muddy the message of the protest, but the activists say the publicity is still the point — and on that front they’ve won.
“I recognize that it looks like a slightly ridiculous action,” one of the soup throwers said after appearing in court. “I agree; it is ridiculous. But we’re not asking the question if everyone should be throwing soup on paintings. What we’re doing is getting the conversation going so we can ask the questions that matter.”
