Following weeks of increasingly frequent actions by climate activists targeting works of art in museums around the world, the National Committee in Germany of ICOM, the International Council of Museums, has issued a statement to address the vandalism.
The letter has been cosigned by 92 representatives from cultural institutions, including Laurence des Cars of the Louvre; Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado; Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum; Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim; and Martine Gosselink, general director of the Mauritshuis.
Rather than tackling the question of whether the actions—throwing foodstuffs at paintings or gluing body parts to frames—are effective at pressing government officials to enact real climate policy, the statement mainly addresses the potential damage to artworks.
The activists, the letter reads, “severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects, which must be preserved as part of our world cultural heritage.” The signatories continue, “As museum directors entrusted with the care of these works, we have been deeply shaken by their risky endangerment.” Nonetheless, the statement ends by emphasizing museums as sites for “social discourse.”
In response to these demonstrations, museums have been beefing up security measures. Berlin venues and the Museum Barberini in Potsdam are now requiring visitors store jackets and bags in lockers. Since news of the actions is often spread via social media, Beate Reifenscheid, chair of ICOM in Germany, told Artnet News that soon, cellphones and cameras may be confiscated as well. Last month, museum guards at the Musée d’Orsay were able to thwart an attack when they noted a woman in a “Just Stop Oil” shirt entering the institution. Protesters have also been fined and sentenced to jail time, though it’s not stopping further actions.
The protests and ICOM’s letter come as more than 90 heads of state and representatives from 190 countries meet in Egypt for COP27, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, to address pressing issues of global climate change.
