Watch climate activists smear paint on priceless Monet painting (video)

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Originally published at: Watch climate activists smear paint on priceless Monet painting (video) | Boing Boing

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These paintings that they smear paint on are always protected by glass. I’m unsure about what I think of the protests, but I hate it when headlines don’t make that clear.

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ever so-slightly click-baity title…

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It looks like this is the current very effective protest method that seemingly all climate activist groups are using to gain exposure. Find a piece of priceless art that is protected and then smear paint over it. The artwork isn’t harmed but you absolutely will be featured in media worldwide.

My fear is that eventually the media will stop reporting on this and then a more radical group will regain their audience by defacing something that isn’t protected and cannot be fixed. That would definitely get news coverage again.

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I still think it would be better if they smeared paint on things that actually related to the climate crisis, like those ridiculously oversized trucks and SUVs that so many Americans use for urban driving.

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That Monet was a rat bastard. I’m glad they targeted someone dangerous like him instead of the Roxon petroleum CEO’s home. That guy’s a saint.

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Or they’ll target a painting that isn’t as well protected as they assume.

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That’s mostly true, although apparently some of the frames get damaged from time to time. Not to mention the museum walls that these guys often glue themselves to.

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speaker #2 was intense man. you’d better protect those f***in wetlands.

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I’m on the protesters’ side, but this is the dumbest gambit… Yeah, you’re getting attention, but it’s on you as the dingus you are, more than the environment, and the only people you’re directly punishing are the museum’s maintenance staff. Leave the fuckin’ art alone and go glue yourself to a town car.

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You may have read that they were funded by Aileen Getty. She’s the granddaughter of J. Paul Getty, who founded Getty Oil and who is said to have loved his art collection more than his family.

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Everyone loves the art collection more than his family.

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(As an aside: that by itself is no knock on Getty. I know lots of people who, if they could afford one, would love an art collection more than their families.)

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So far…

Sucks they have to do that, as brush strokes are easier to see with out it. Guess that’s the price of security.

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When I see these guys dumping charcoal in the Trevi fountain I wonder, do they think it through? Yes, it gives them attention, but that’s the same sort of attention that the Taliban get when they post a video of a prisoner beheading. In what way is this good for the cause?

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Full Disclosure: I really know nothing about these idiots or their funders. If it were a false-flag operation, it would be pretty effective because they’re obviously just privileged spoiled little d-bags. On the other hand, I imagine they’re dumb enough to think it will have an effect. More likely, they don’t care if it has an effect as long as they get attention and annoy their parents who bail them out.

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You’d be really hard pressed to actually see the glass. The illumination is generally studied to eliminate any reflection, and the glass is cleaned regularly. I think it’ mostly there as a protection from general dust and grime, though. Also, they probably damaged the frame, which is generally not the cheap sort you get from Ikea.

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I still can’t figure out why these asses believe doing this will convince anyone to support their cause. I understand the activists who actually chained themselves to actual trees, but this? It’s practically a strategy to persuade rational people to never even consider supporting whatever organization you claim to be a part of.

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I’m surprised there isn’t any violence inflicted on these people by the museum’s public - who don’t necesarily know that the painting is protected

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In Germany, mostly what I’ve seen is that groups like Extinction Rebellion and Last Generation steel the spotlight from more moderate, grassroots groups like Fridays for Future, and have now almost completely monopolized the public platform for climate activism.

And I think that’s a shame, because their untargeted antics alienate a lot of people and find very little popular support. They are effective in garnering media attention by gluing themselves to roads and climbing dinosaur skeletons, but they increasingly are making climate activism look like a fringe activity of the far left, and I think that is really unfortunate.

I do not understand why they are so indifferent to strategy, and so unconcerned with targeting actual bad actors. We have at least two coal-fired power plants within city limits in Berlin, but the climate protestors are not to be found protesting there, or at the offices of the big coal companies or their PR and legal servants. Instead, they’re harrying art museum staff with actions that mostly alienate people and that serve no strategic goal whatsoever.

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