Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson: No new date or venue has been set for the meeting between Araghchi and Witkoff, and no negotiations will take place until the outcome is guaranteed
Palestinian platforms: Settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque complex under the protection of the occupation police
Palestinian platforms: The IOF detonated a booby-trapped robot east of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City
Syrian Defense: We call on all parties in Sweida to cooperate with security forces and exercise restraint
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese Army is continuing its investigations and will later announce any information that does not affect the confidentiality of the investigation
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: It has not yet been determined whether the detainees belong to ISIS or another organization
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Around 10 people of different nationalities, including Lebanese nationals, were detained
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese army arrested a number of people in the Matn area of Mount Lebanon with possession it has not disclosed
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: We have strong indications that there are martyrs, injuries, and trapped people in the Salah al-Din area
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Citizens should avoid Salah al-Din Street because anyone who approaches it is at risk of being directly targeted

Just Stop Oil activists follow suffragettes tactic amid charges filed

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 3 Dec 2022 16:08
3 Min Read

Charges of property damage are being filed against a protestor after they followed the same tactic and glued themselves to the frame of the Cranach painting.

  • x
  • Activists throw liquid at a Gustav Klimt painting in Vienna (AP)
    Activists throw liquid at a Gustav Klimt painting in Vienna (AP)

Almost 12 world-famous artworks were targeted by climate activists groups pertaining to the Just Stop Oil campaign as protestors throw food and liquid at the paintings and glue themselves to them, although no permanent damage to them has occurred. 

Just Stop Oil spokesperson Alex De Koning stated in an interview with Sky News that the example they lead by is that of the suffragettes who “violently slashed paintings in order to get their messages across", adding: “If things need to escalate then we’re going to take inspiration from past successful movements and we’re going to do everything we can,” 

Read next: Oil protestors plead not guilty to sabotaging Van Gogh painting

He said: “If that’s unfortunately what it needs to come to, then that’s unfortunately what it needs to come to.” The incident he is referring to goes back to 1914 when suffragette Mary Richardson walked into London’s National Gallery and slashed Diego Velazquez’s 17th-century painting The Rokeby Venus in protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst.

“I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history,” Richardson stated at the time. “Justice is an element of beauty as much as color and outline on canvas.”

Related News

Two UK climate protestors jailed for climbing bridge, delaying traffic

World snooker championship interrupted by Just Stop Oil protesters

Beginning in June, Just Stop Oil members glued themselves to four paintings in museums across the UK - one of them being van Gogh’s 1889 landscape, Peach Trees in Blossom. Soup was thrown at another van Gogh, The Sower (1888), by activists from Italy’s Ultima Generazione, and two protestors from Germany’s Letzte Generation group threw mashed potatoes at Claude Monet’s Haystacks (1890).

Are the tactics effective?

During an October panel about social consciousness in museums, Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum of Art, expressed: “It’s people putting themselves on a stage in order to bring attention to something, but you have to ask, does this really change anything,”

92 signatories from cultural institutions released a public letter last month decried actions taken by the activists as they “severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects, which must be preserved as part of our world cultural heritage,” The letter continued: “As museum directors entrusted with the care of these works, we have been deeply shaken by their risky endangerment.”

Charges of property damage were filed on Friday against a protestor after they followed the same tactic and glued themselves to the frame of the Cranach painting The Calm on the Run to Egypt at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie.

Another incident occurred last month in Belgium whereby two protestors were given a two-month sentence for one of them gluing their hand to the wall next to Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the other attempted to glue his head to the painting.

The Guardian reported that the public prosecutor asked for four months in prison with two months suspended, clarifying in a hearing, “An artwork hanging there for all of us to enjoy has been smeared by defendants who felt their message took precedence over everything else.”

  • Just Stop Oil
  • Arts
  • Van Gogh
  • Climate crisis
  • paintings

Most Read

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Major ambush in Gaza kills 6 Israeli troops, injures dozens

Major ambush in Gaza kills 5 Israeli troops, injures 14

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Israeli soldiers are seen in Beit Hanoun ahead of an operation by the al-Qassam Brigades, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)

'Israel' on blast as media exposes report discrepancies in Gaza ambush

  • Palestine
  • 8 Jul 2025
Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
The Freedom Flotilla ship Handala as it departs for Gaza, where it aims to break the maritime blockade at a port in Syracuse, Sicily in southern Italy on July 13, 2025. (AFP)
Palestine

Freedom Flotilla's Handala departs Sicily in bid to break Gaza siege

The container ship CMA CGM Laperouse, left, docks at the Georgia Ports Authority's Port of Savannah, Sept. 29, 2021, in Savannah, Ga (AP)
Politics

US shipbuilding woes deepen as tariffs, outdated policies backfire

Gaza war raises ethical questions for ex-Obama, Biden officials
Politics

Mercenary firm tied to Gaza war crimes hires Obama-Biden PR operatives

'Israel' targets children in Gaza collecting water
Palestine

'Israel' strikes Gaza kids fetching water, blames it on 'malfunction'

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS