I would note that this thing took place less than 1 mile from the headquarters of Shell.
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Looks like they’re on a roll. This was just a little bit ago.
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From the Guardian article: “The canvas of the painting is protected with a glass screen, a factor Just Stop Oil said they had taken into account.” Also, if you watch the video you can see that the soup splatters just off the surface of the painting and drips down more like it would on flat glass than it would on a textured oil painting.
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My first thought on reading the headline.
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Exactly. They wanted publicity and got it. No paintings or sunflowers harmed. 
Also, they GLUED themselves to the wall! Love it. No bars to handcuff too. I wish I was in that brainstorming meeting.
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I hope that’s vegan paint or something biodegradable otherwise they are dumbass hypocrites
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Ah yes, noted oil baron Vincent van Gogh. Or were they more protesting those #1 consumers of oil, art galleries?
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Somebody pointed that out on twitter, this person replied.
So they’re good, of course the cleanup won’t be a delicate process either.
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Smart protesting against oil starts at the gas pump, idiots. Then the refineries, then the oil pipelines and derricks. Maybe even a CEO’s house or two.
I believe I recall some incident a few years back where environmental protesters actually brought their grievances to a CEO’s home for discussion, but were thwarted by refreshments served by his wife. 
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Hmm. Debatable.
Also: It’s probably journalistic leading that’s making the connection, but oil paints are not petrol-based. And they certainly weren’t in the Belle Epoque.
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I am beginning to suspect that a lot of this is agent provocateurs encouraging naive people to do this.
There is a lot of anger in Britain, but these people aren’t asking if their actions have any value as praxis. It only makes life harder for people who do need to protest. The only people who benefit from this are the people they claim to oppose.
It looks like Just Stop Oil started that way, but quickly switched to this tactic. I can’t help but think that Big Oil and maybe MI5 is secretly supporting them.
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You’re right, few oil painting are protected because part of the appreciation of oil paintings is the strokes and paint build up. I don’t recall us having any oils under glass at the museum I worked for. But then again, we didn’t have a Van Gogh.
But according to the Guardian article this one is under glass. I bet they still took it down and removed the glass to make sure nothing seeped between it and the frame.
Just - this kind of activism rubs me the wrong way. Yeah, you called attention to your cause, but if anything, you just made your cause seem silly and unreasonable. Like dumping out milk on the floor of a market.
Throw paint on the walls of oil corporation building or something, if you want to do a destructive protest - but target the actual actors. Not some long dead artist whose work still brings people joy.
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Yeah, this makes no sense to me. Scotland Yard makes MORE sense, and that doesn’t make much sense either. Going after the headquarters of an oil company, or gas stations, that would make sense. I mean, when people were trying to save old growth forests from lumbering, they chained themselves to those trees or tried to block the access roads in. They didn’t go to DC and toss some cooked spaghetti noodles on the tomb of the unknown soldier.
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This one is kind of beautiful!
Russian troll farms or Koch astroturfers would also have the means and motives to encourage useful idiots.
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Shell obtained court injunctions in May to stop protesters targeting their service stations (as well as their offices and depots).
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basically the same logic that the Taliban used to for destroying the Bamiyan Buddhas:
I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings—the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha’s destruction
From: 'We are hunting Americans like pigs' (via Wikipedia)
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I think it was linseed oil or walnut oil. Not a petroleum product.
“Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”
False equivalency is false. Assholes are part of the same ruining of the future that they’re supposedly working against.
I have to say - if I see someone trying to desecrate a cultural treasure- I’d probably tackle and make sure they weren’t getting up to quickly.
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I’d have to say that their way of delivering their message is probably completely lost on the people they most need to reach…
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