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Climate activists throw soup over Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' in London

38 Comments
By Anna MALPAS

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38 Comments
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Why attack works of art??..

That way they will not pay attention to their demands, they will win more enemies..

Pathetic kids..

6 ( +12 / -6 )

Why is this even being reported as news?

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

Just Stop Oil has previously targeted several other famous paintings with glue attacks.

Several term I would use to describe this, just say the protesters lack judgement.

Oil oligarchs usually don't have their private art collections on public display.

Reminds me of the mass shooters who will target a school when they have a grudge with government policy.

Spray some graffiti on an oil corporation headquarters building or oligarch mansion!

They probably don't have the talent to do a Banksy.

Thank Dog the painting was not damaged.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

What’s wrong with people, not only should they get some time, but they should do 6 months of community service to teach them a lesson that they just can’t deface or destroy public works of art or property as they see fit.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

morons

7 ( +9 / -2 )

If anything, this dumb stunt will only turn people off environmental causes.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

The ordinary citizens of the UK are getting very upset with these protestors. The same is happening in other European countries. Blocking roads. Art museum events.

"One of Van Gogh's famous Sunflowers paintings has been cleaned and is back on display after climate activists threw tins of what appeared to be tomato soup over it. London's National Gallery confirmed it is now back in place, about six hours after the soup incident."

6 ( +6 / -0 )

the pink hair says it all. "look at me" insecurity is spreading, now it's a cool to be insecure and groupthinkish. They should just throw their efforts into supporting NATO and Ukraine cuz with nuclear war, it's a win win for the environment, in the long run anyway.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

There is little difference between these spoiled and useless idiots and the Taliban or Isis in terms of mentality. The Taliban destroyed the 1500 year old Bamiyan statutes with the same disrespect for the world's cultural heritage. Maybe they should just be shipped off to Kabul. On second though, maybe not. They would probably come back as suicide bombers.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

If anything, this dumb stunt will only turn people off environmental causes.

Indeed, and if I could indulge in a bit of conspiracy theorizing would be a disinfo PR campaign to shape public opinion that an oil oligarch could fund quite cheaply.

Occupy Wall Street had it right, the oil oligarchs and their political puppets are the ones that need to be targeted for stunts like this, not a priceless work of genius by a tortured man who saw little gain from his own work.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Hey Children! Leave Van Gogh Alone!

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Using a large corporations product Heinze soup as a tool to protect the environment via damaging unique antiques ?

Don't they realize their supporting a large corporation by purchasing the soup that undoubtedly needs oil to sustain their production line of soup

Whooosh !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Why attack the paintings? Because they are oil paintings?

No soup for you!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The new oil and gas projects are designed to replace Russian origin fuel.

Given the rise in prices, nobody is using any oil or gas that they don't need to. Like it or not, day to day life is going to require fossil fuel for some time to come. We will need quite a bit of it to build green power tech for the transition.

Unlike some acts of vandalism, these have clearly been designed to not damage the works of art. But activists did block a road the other day, delaying an ambulance and fire engine on a call. That doesn't help the cause.

Activism is like a revolution - difficult to control. People are under pressure, tempers are getting shorter and it is only a matter of time before one of these stunts ends badly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

'Art is to console those who are broken by life'

Vincent van Gogh

The cost of living crisis is serious I agree but in what way is wasting food by vandalising a painting going to solve it?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is the sort of act that thoroughly alienates even those of us who are sympathetic to the need to reduce greenhouse gases and try to save the planet. It is counter productive in the extreme.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

They should do this in Moscow or St Petersburg.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

When I was a kid I was scared of getting the train to London. Can't imagine the entitlement of today's youth to think this is in any way acceptable. We really have a generation of unbearable humans.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Charge them with vandalism. To me culture is the apex of humanity, these animals do not belong to the human race. Of all the things they can throw their stuff at, why pick art?

I also doubt their action has any impact on reducing emission.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Why don’t these losers go throw tomato soup at a Saudi oil sheik, or the CEO of Shell.

That tomato soup they threw, however, was probably made from tomatoes grown Spain, with spices from Iran, and chicken stock from Brazil, and canned in Vietnam.

All transported in ships, trucks and trains powered by…. Oil

Produced on farms that operate oil powered machinery, processed in factories that use electricity generated with oil…

5 ( +5 / -0 )

All the ice caps are melting rapidly. All the rivers and lakes are drying. The climate warming is accelerating. I we do not curb the greenhouse effect, the atmospheric temperature will rise to a hundred or two hundreds degrees Celsius within a decade. In such a temperature, all the waters of the oceans will vaporize and become steam. The steam blanket will perpetuate the greenhouse effect.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I meant to say "if we do not curb".

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Bring back the stocks!

For a donation of $10 towards green technology, anyone can throw rotten vegetables at them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I don't understand whyt they are anti-oil - do they think acrylics are superior to oil paints?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

These idiots have similar brain power to those morons who glued themselves to Tube trains in a very poor area of East London to protest about cars. This has nothing to do with the “cause” and more to do with narcissism and bragging rights at the next dinner party.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Idiots.

They might have a point to make but completely lost in their efforts.

Typical rich kids thinking.

Why don't they donate all their money, everything and live a useless life.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

One of these women attended StMary’s school in Ascot, a very expensive private school, and later an even more expensive private college. They reek of privilege and entitlement.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

TokyoLivingOct. 15  07:15 am JST

Why attack works of art??..

That way they will not pay attention to their demands, they will win more enemies..

Pathetic kids..

I agree that we must do better to get cleaner greener energy at lower costs (in the long run). As a Cold War veteran I am disgusted that most US wars since have been sacrifices to the gods of oil and petroleum. I am sick of all that crap.

So, these two losers decide to barge into an art museum and vandalize it by hurling Heinz tomato soup at a painting depicting one of God's most unique and beautiful creations - sunflowers. Wasting food to protest wasting our natural resources to get dirty fuel. Duuuuuuhhhhhhh-uhhh-uuhh--UUHHMMMMMM!!!!!!

samuraivunylOct. 15  07:18 am JST

I think these poor pathetic people are confused. Van Gogh was an artist, an impoverished one, not an oil tycoon who painted as a hobby while enjoying millions from the sale of oil.

these people seriously need to get a life, and an education

Why don't they go to a refinery to protest this? Why an art museum? Makes no sense at all.

plasticmonkeyOct. 15  08:15 am JST

If anything, this dumb stunt will only turn people off environmental causes

Remember when the ELF (Environmental Liberation Front) pulled an idiotic stunt by setting fire to a bunch of vehicles in a garage a few years ago?

stormcrowOct. 15  08:05 am JST

morons

CRETINS.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

glued themselves to a wall,

Getting pried off the walls by the security has gotta hurt, what if they have to 'go to the bathroom'?

You don't win others over to your cause by pulling disruptive 'guerilla tactic' stunts like this, especially by taking it out on artwork which is to be enjoyed by everyone.

And to make it worse, some of these imbeciles have even blocked Trafalger Square and slowed down and blocked ambulances and fire trucks from going thru.

Major uncool, man.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This is the height of privileged 'slacktivism' if I've ever seen it. And I agree with their stance on ending fossil fuel consumption. But this type of protest is not just ineffective, it's counterproductive. People who might otherwise sympathize with their goals are going to be turned off by what, on the face of it, seems like an attack on something completely unrelated to the environment or fossil fuels.

But this kind of protest doesn't just grab headlines: It's EASY. It takes no prep. Takes barely any effort. Takes almost no sacrifice. Compare this protest to the Native American protests surrounding the Dakota Access pipeline. They were out there, every day, at the heart of the industry they were fighting. They organized. They fundraised. They sacrificed. Hundreds were injured. Almost a thousand were arrested. What they did was DIFFICULT in the extreme. And people gravitated towards them and began to support their position *because their protest was focused exactly where it needed to be: *on the pipeline.

If they'd gone around pouring milk jugs on the ground for poor service workers to clean up or throwing soup on priceless artwork at a museum, I daresay people wouldn't have been NEARLY so sympathetic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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