After the attacks on paintings by great artists in Europe by environmental activists, art world professionals from Paris to New York condemned the acts of vandalism and describe them as “counterproductive” and dangerous.
Although most of the major French and British museums, including the Louvre, the National Gallery, and the Tate in London remain restrained, some have requested stronger protection measures.
Last week, the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague was targeted by climate activists. Two activists glued themselves to Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ painting and the adjoining wall, while another threw a thick red substance at it. Fortunately, the artwork was behind glass and undamaged, and was returned to public view.
The activists wearing ‘Just Stop Oil’ T-shirts asked ‘How do you feel? This painting is protected by glass but… the future of our children is not protected.’
After the event, the Mauritshuis museum said in a statement, ‘Art is defenseless and we strongly condemn trying to damage it for whichever cause,’
This is not the first time environmental activists attacked a famous painting. Activists splashed tomato soup on Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London last month, and threw mashed potato over a Claude Monet painting at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany.
The Honorary President of the Modern Art Centre Pompidou in Paris, Bernard Blistene, said all museum managers had been taking precautions against vandalism for a very long time and “we should confidently take more”.
Security Measures
Security expert for the German Museum Association (DMB) and the Hasso Plattner Foundation, Remigiusz Plathsaid, said, “All museums must think about stronger security measures.“ such as “prohibiting bags, jackets and perhaps also searching” visitors”.
“Of course, we understand the cause [of the activists]” but “we have absolutely no tolerance for vandalism,” he stressed.
“It is sheer luck that so far no painting has been damaged. That will happen sooner or later,” Plathsaid said.
The Prado Museum told a Spanish newspaper that it is “on alert”.
Nihilism
Adam Weinberg of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, questioned the activists’ approach.
‘It’s people putting themselves on a stage in order to bring attention to something, but you have to ask, does this really change anything?’ he said at a discussion on Wednesday in Qatar, according to ARTNews.
Tristram Hunt, of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, voiced concern at the ‘nihilistic language around the protests that there is no place for art in times of crisis.
France’s Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak has called on ‘all national museums to redouble their vigilance.
For Didier Rykner, the founder of the online French magazine La Tribune de l’art, these acts of protest are ‘counterproductive’ and ‘the more visibility they are given, the more they will do it again.
“By becoming commonplace, these acts undoubtedly lose their force,” he argued.
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