Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after smashing the glass covering a Diego Velázquez painting at the National Gallery in London, as police detained dozens of others who blocked Whitehall.
Two activists targeted the glass on the Rokeby Venus painting with safety hammers before they were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
The artwork, which was painted by Velázquez in the 1600s, was slashed by the suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914. One of those involved on Monday said: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words.”
The Metropolitan police said at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” in Whitehall were also detained and that the road was clear after traffic was stopped for a brief period.
I don’t necessarily agree that that is what’s displayed here. People care about the environment they do but that’s not the same as saying we don’t want people slashing paintings for no reason we can have both.
It’s a completely ridiculous statement to suggest that you can only have one or the other and that in order to save the planet we have to destroy artwork.
OK, but there’s a big difference in the reaction of the people.
They react with anger and “this needs to be stopped, punish those responsible harshly” to slashing paintings, and with resignation or indifference to the actions that destroy the planet. “Oh well, nothing we can do”
Then maybe a better way to think about it for you would be like this:
Why should we have nice things when we haven’t even done the basics? if you give yior kid dessert before dinner, they probably aren’t even gonna eat their dinner - people are mammals were naturally lazy.
So what can we do to help it? Not have nice things until were not actively killing ourselves