Climate Activists Threaten to ‘Escalate’ Protests With Art Slashings

Just Stop Oil protestors, who recently doused Harrod’s London in orange paint and caked a King Charles III waxwork at Madame Tussauds, are now considering “escalating” their protests to slashing famous works of art. 

It seems the group doesn’t plan to stop defacing iconic artworks such as Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Instead, it has plans for even more disruptions during the run-up to the holiday season. 

Alex De Koning, a spokesperson for the collective, told Sky News he felt it was “insane” how there were more people outraged about art possibly being ruined than the floods that have wrecked Pakistan and displaced millions. 

He explained that going forward, the demonstrators planned on taking inspiration from suffragettes, who in history were known for “violently slashing paintings in order to get their messages across.” 

According to Artnet News, activist Mary Richarson led the charge back in 1914 when she slashed 17th-century work The Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver at London’s National Gallery to protest an arrest of a fellow suffragette. 

“Justice is an element of beauty as much as color and outline on canvas,” Richardson is believed to have written about her shocking demonstration at the time. 

De Koning echoed the sentiments, warning that Just Stop Oil would “continue to escalate” its protests unless the government meets its demands to stop funding future gas and oil projects. 

While he did agree that it would be unfortunate if highly-prized artworks were damaged as part of the group’s protests, De Koning admitted slashing paintings wasn’t out of the picture, and “it could potentially come to that.” 

Despite several of the activists having seen jail time for defacing or damaging pieces in galleries and museums, it seems they won’t be stopped anytime soon, and will not be deterred by the risk of being sent behind bars.

[via Sky News and Artnet News, cover image via Just Stop Oil]