Climate activists throwing food at paintings could save the planet
Generating headlines — which these activists are doing in spades — is critical for advancing climate mitigation policies.
On Sunday, two climate activists hurled mashed potatoes at “Les Meules,” a valuable Claude Monet painting in a German museum. The agitators glued themselves to the wall beneath the artwork for extra measure. It was the latest stunt from Last Generation, a German climate group that is calling for the government to take action to stop using fossil fuels.
The disruption is one of many in a series of protests in which environmental advocates from various organizations target iconic paintings by celebrated painters.
If climate activists focused only on symbols directly related to what is damaging the planet — like a pipeline or an oil refinery — then it may not have gotten quite the same buzz. It would’ve been too predictable.
In May 2022, for example, an activist smeared a pastry across the Mona Lisa in Paris’ Louvre Museum. Two months later, demonstrators glued themselves to the frame of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and spray-painted the wall below it at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. Earlier this month, activists tossed tomato soup at “Sunflowers,” one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous oil paintings, at the National Gallery in London.
These attention-seeking actions are designed to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
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