Tomato soup on van Gogh’s glass-protected “Sunflowers.” Mashed potatoes on Monet’s “Grainstacks.” Activists, saying little else has worked, have been taking to museums to draw attention to the climate crisis. They say they’ve been careful not to damage the artworks.
Still, these recent actions have been polarizing. Here are some comments on our article contextualizing the protests:
“Embarrassing confession: Did not know that climate change was caused by French impressionists.” — Scott Shapiro, a professor at Yale, on Twitter
“We tried sitting in the roads, we tried blocking oil terminals, and we got virtually zero press coverage, yet the thing that gets the most press is chucking some tomato soup on a piece of glass covering a masterpiece.” — Mel Carrington, a spokeswoman for Just Stop Oil
What do you think? Is it vandalism, unnecessary and off-putting? Or is any attention good attention if it gets people talking? Are you outraged? And if so, by what? We’re especially interested to know if you have any experience with protests yourself.