I appreciate art. I appreciate art of all forms: sculptures, music, paintings, and any other form of creative expression. Hence, I do not appreciate when someone destroys art… most of the time. If you don’t enjoy the morning news like I do, you might not have heard about the recent series of environmental activists defacing oil companies’ buildings, headquarters, and most shocking, famous oil paintings in multiple national art galleries.

   These people associate themselves with the anti-big-oil group, Just Stop Oil. According to the Just Stop Oil website, the UK-based group believe that “Allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK is an obscene and genocidal policy that will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion” (juststopoil.org).

   For example, on November 11, 2022, a pair of Just Stop Oil activists threw a can of soup on the famous Van Gogh painting “Sunflowers.” Then they subsequently glued their hands to the floor, making authorities unable to remove them from the painting’s side. Another one of these protests from the same group glued themselves to a copy of Leonardo de Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in London and spray painted the words “no new oil” underneath the painting’s frame. These protesters don’t only choose to make their statements on and around paintings, though. On November 16, 2022, on top of the M25 highway that encircles London, a group of  Just Stop Oil members blocked the road with signs and glued themselves to the road.

   On one hand, I agree that Big Oil is a twisted and corrupt system that only cares for profit and knowingly harms the environment. But on the flip side, why do these activists have to deface art? If their whole platform is based on saving humanity’s future, why destroy our past? Not a good look. For perspective, imagine if an Apple CEO broke into and stole all of Samsung’s new phones to tell people that Apple’s phones are better? How would the company look to a potential buyer? The same idea can apply to the Just Stop Oil brand.

   I do not support this form of advertising. Instead of defacing the art, why not make some. Think of the public eye seeing a brand new art installation. No violence, no angry mobs, and no one getting arrested for a stunt that won’t change anything. Maybe a news article? Have a compelling argument about it and provide the necessary resources to help. Again, no angry mobs and no angry museums.

   Although some circumstances warrant disruptive protests, these protests were unnecessarily disruptive. The Just Stop Oil’s reason for protest stems from corrupt oil companies, which are not inherently violent and do not warrant destruction of history.