When the paintings are lucky, the throwing of porridge and soup at paintings will soon be over. It shouldn’t have escaped the notice of the climate activists who began taping themselves to the frames of precious paintings in the summer of 2022 that their actions are now being made fun of. After the tomato soup attack on a Sunflower painting by Vincent van Gogh in London, rapper Lil Nas X posted a photo showing him throwing the red can of Campbell’s tomato soup in a museum with Van Gogh’s image based on Andy Warhol’s screenprint. The text reads: “I avenge you, Mr. van Gogh.”
When a pop star, who as a gay black man is familiar with various types of activism, ridicules the actions of climate protectors in front of more than 20 million followers on Instagram and Twitter, they have a problem. What is controversial can be continued, what is ridiculed is done.
“Press attacks”
On the other hand, if the museums are unlucky, things continue in a radicalized manner. So far, out of respect and self-defense, the activists have been careful to aim their wet, acidic, and sticky projectiles only at images protected behind glass. But there is no guarantee that this will remain the case. A can or thermos bottle could accidentally fly, glass could break and, for the first time, a picture could be really damaged.
He views the attacks on works of art with great concern, says Martin Faass, director of the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt. After the mashed potatoes attack on a Monet in Potsdam, Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, asked that natural heritage and cultural heritage not be played off against each other. He agrees: “Press attacks on works of cultural heritage do not bring us one step closer to saving the natural heritage.” The supervisors are sensitized to the new risk situation and have newly adapted guidelines for action.” The restoration department also has materials ready for emergencies. He does not reveal which cases and materials they are.
Hand in bags and backpacks
For security reasons, the Museum Wiesbaden does not want to provide any information at all, and the Städel also expresses itself sparingly. On August 24, activists from the group “Last Generation” glued themselves to Nicolas Poussin’s “Thunderstorm Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe” in the museum on Frankfurt’s Schaumainkai. A spokeswoman refers to the house rules, according to which larger bags and backpacks must be handed in at the cloakroom or stored in a locker. Clothing may not be worn over the arm in the exhibition rooms, eating, drinking and carrying liquids are not permitted. However, a visit based on this information still shows numerous small shoulder bags for women and men in the museum halls, as well as jackets, jackets and ponchos, all of which are suitable hiding places for superglue and worse.
The frame of the Poussin has now been restored, but the museum is silent about the costs, which has filed a complaint for property damage and trespassing and would probably keep it that way after soup or porridge.
It may be that the actual work on security begins only after the quality of the stay of the public has been ensured and ranges from glazing suitable works to more staff who rotate more frequently. That doesn’t solve the basic conflict. Museums have the task of enabling the public to encounter works of art, says Faass. It would be easiest not to show them at all: “They would be much safer in the cellar or depot.” But there is no encounter there: “There is a fundamental conflict of objectives between conveying and preserving, which we as museums cannot resolve. “ Just hold out.
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