The Old Masters are under attack, and nobody quite knows what to do about it. The weapons are varied, ranging from tomato soup aimed at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” to mashed potatoes slung at Claude Monet’s “Les Meules” to spray-painted graffiti over a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” undertaken by two of the Master’s pupils. Cake was smeared on a wax model of King Charles III. A painting by John Constable got glued.

The campaign of mutilating art to save nature can obscure the sheer philistinism — and even nihilism — of these stunts. The group behind this is Just Stop Oil, which demands that Westminster immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels.” No masterpieces have been irreparably damaged, yet, but that seems more a matter of luck than intent.

It finally looks like an effort is underway to end these protests. A public order bill that passed the House of Commons this week targets “criminal, disruptive and self-defeating guerrilla tactics” like the ones described above. Footage of these vandalisms suggest lax security and confused leadership from museum authorities apparently less interested in protecting their wonders than treating protesters with kid gloves. 

Stiffer penalties are steps in the right direction, but deterrence will be difficult. A spokesman for Just Stop Oil, Cameron Ford, told the Guardian that “until they put the death sentence as the repercussions for what we’re doing, it won’t deter us, because the alternative to us not getting the change that we’re demanding is death.” They remind of the Taliban followers who dynamited the Bamiyan Buddhas. 

To borrow a phrase from the editor of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz, these “know-nothing bohemians” happen to be well heeled. Just Stop Oil is funded by the Climate Emergency Fund, which was founded by Rory Kennedy, daughter of Senator Robert Kennedy, and Aileen Getty, granddaughter of oil baron Jean Paul Getty. Both the Gettys and the Kennedys made money off of crude, a sin now to be expiated with cake and tomato soup.

While thus far the spate of attacks have been confined to English and European soil, there is reason to worry that they will find succor on these shores. In the Wall Street Journal, Eric Gibson describes how museums are turning from immortal art to fashionable progressive politics and “connoisseurs” are yielding to “commissars.” It does not require the vision of Pablo Picasso to imagine a future where institutions join hands with the barbarians already inside their gates.