Climate Change Wackos Vandalize Museum Art
Over the past couple of weeks, climate change wackos have been vandalizing museum art pieces. They claim to be doing it to bring awareness to climate change.
The first attack was in London where two members of “Just Stop Oil” threw a can of tomato soup on Van Gogh’s 1888 masterpiece Sunflowers at the National Gallery. The vandals then superglued themselves to the wall and made a statement calling for more action to be done to fight climate change.
Last weekend, a couple of German climate change wackos vandalized a Monet painting. They threw liquified mashed potatoes on it and then gave their rant on stopping climate change.
Thankfully, neither painting was seriously damaged. They were both protected by glass which prevented the food from seeping into the painting itself. But the glass coverings are not made to withstand things being thrown on them. The next attack could be worse.
Yesterday, the Just Stop Oil nutcases struck again in London. This time they smeared chocolate cake over a waxwork of King Charles III at Madame Tussauds. Four people have been arrested for criminal damage.
Who is Just Stop Oil? It appears that it is a billionaire-funded astroturf organization.
The leading group in this action is Just Stop Oil, which claims to be “a coalition of groups working together to ensure that the government commits to ending all new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.” Investigation reveals Just Stop Oil – and linked organisations Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and others – is backed by billionaires, tax-exempt charities and international corporations.
Just Stop Oil states it is partially funded by the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), founded by Aileen Getty, granddaughter of oil tycoon John Paul Getty. The Getty Family, collectively, has an estimated wealth of around £3.9B. Getty personally put a foundational sum of £900,000 into CEF.
CEF acts as an umbrella organisation which distributes funds to eco-activist groups worldwide. CEF is a 501(c)(3) organisation incorporated in Delaware on 18 June 2019, which means it is exempt from federal income tax. Trusts, foundations and charities use this status for non-profit purposes. Although CEF features a ticker-tape list of small individual donors, most of its money comes from large donations. The executive director of the CEF is Margaret Klein Salamon.
[…]With two members of the Aileen Getty Foundation on the board of CEF (with one of them appointed President), it seems that the millionairess essentially directs the organisation.
Tracking the CEF’s funds is tricky. Accounts show the CEF’s money comes through shell companies. Its top donors are Marin Community Foundation, Earthsense Foundation and Schwab Charitable Fund – vaguely defined organisations committed to environmental action, which do not generate the money they disburse. Tracing money back through these foundations and funds turns into an endless chain that (deliberately or otherwise) obscures the ultimate origin of the money that supports eco-activism.
What we have here are people who are being financed by rich kids who are trying to destroy priceless works of art in order to force people to use more expensive weather-dependent sources of energy. Who do you think will pay the higher costs of this energy transition? The working-class people they claim to care about.
Meanwhile, Just Stop Oil says that it will continue these attacks. The attacks will continue until countries stop all new fossil fuel projects.
These attacks need to be seen as the logical next step of the far-left’s war on private property. The left believes that the destruction of private property is morally right when it is done to advance the cause. The most famous example is the BLM riots that took place in the summer of 2020.
So far, this vandalism is confined to Europe but it could come to the United States. I hope that art galleries and their patrons are ready for it.
Art galleries should tighten their security where possible. If anyone is trying to bring in soup or anything like that, it’s probably a good bet they’re coming to vandalize the priceless artwork inside. They should keep those people out.
If they do breach security, patrons would be justified in beating these people down when they commit their acts of vandalism. The best deterrent to property crime is the use of violence in defense of property.
An attack on priceless works of art is an attack on civilization itself. But then again, destroying modern Western Civilization is the goal of whackos like Just Stop Oil.
We must be willing to stand up to these people and punish them harshly for their vandalism.
