Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How to stop Just Stop Oil

They deface art because we let them

The National Gallery is home to Van Gogh’s still life Sunflowers. It’s an oil on canvas that, according to the Times, has been valued at £75 million. It is a cherished work of modern European art and one of the most important to come from the post-impressionist movement. This morning, two activists from Just Stop Oil went into Room 43 of the National Gallery and drenched Sunflowers in Heinz cream of tomato soup, before glueing themselves to the wall.

One of the young women said: 

Is art worth more than life? More than food? More than justice? The cost of living crisis is driven by fossil fuels. Everyday life has become unaffordable for millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup. Meanwhile, crops are failing and people are dying in supercharged monsoons, massive wildfires and endless droughts caused by climate breakdown. We can’t afford new oil and gas.

We have invited this kind of behaviour by indulging it

The National Gallery says the painting has not been damaged – high-value works tend to have a plastic film placed over them before going on public display – but there has been ‘some minor damage to the frame’. The Metropolitan police says it has arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage and aggravated trespass.

You might object to these actions because criminal damage is against the law. You might say this is the wrong way to go about changing public policy on energy and the climate. You might argue that, however noble your cause or sincere your intentions, attempting to deface a landmark work of art to make a political statement only makes the statement that you are an authoritarian brat breaking other people’s toys to get your own way.

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