In the time honored tradition of barbarians everywhere, the ecoterrorists of “Stop Oil Now” have attempted to destroy great art to make a point.

🌻🥫 BREAKING: SOUP THROWN ON VAN GOGH’S ‘SUNFLOWERS’ 🥫🌻

🖼 Is art worth more than life? More than food? More than justice?

🛢 The cost of living crisis and climate crisis is driven by oil and gas.#FreeLouis #FreeJosh #CivilResistance #A22Network #JustStopOil #NoNewOil pic.twitter.com/18T2zSP2ws

— Just Stop Oil ⚖️💀🛢 (@JustStop_Oil) October 14, 2022

I would call these “activists” spoiled children, but having taken a page out of the Taliban’s book, they deserve to be called much worse.

You can watch the video of the event and listen to the execrable speech given afterwards:

Activists with @JustStop_Oil have thrown tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the national Gallery and glued themselves to the wall. pic.twitter.com/M8YP1LPTOU

— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) October 14, 2022

“Sunflowers” is one of the most valuable pieces of art in the world, worth tens of millions at least. It is world famous, and in my humble opinion, a far better painting than the over-praised Mona Lisa that people use as a benchmark for great art.

London — Environmental protesters on Friday threw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting at the National Gallery in central London, videos posted on social media showed.

Just Stop Oil said in a statement that two protesters threw two cans of Heinz Tomato soup over the painting at 11:00 a.m. (6 a.m. Eastern) to demand that the U.K. government halt all new oil and gas projects.

In a tweet, the activist group blamed the current economic turmoil and the climate crisis facing the world on fossil fuels, asking: “Is art worth more than life? More than food?”

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested the two protesters for criminal damage and aggravated trespass after they “threw a substance over a painting” at the gallery on London’s Trafalgar Square.

BBC News said the the gallery had confirmed that the painting was covered by glass, so it wasn’t damaged.  

Thank God for that!

You are probably familiar with Just Stop Oil for their prior stunts where they glue themselves to the frames of great artworks. These publicity stunts were apparently not enough for their taste, and they have graduated to actually destroying the art itself.

Terrorism that attacks people is obviously worse, but I can’t get past the sense that people attacking cultural artifacts deserve a special place in hell. Artifacts like the Buddhas of Bamiyan that the Taliban destroyed were part of the cultural inheritance of all humanity, as is Van Gogh’s painting. They belong to all mankind in a very real way as an enduring symbol of humanity’s striving to create.

It takes a special kind of hate to attack humanity itself, as these activists have, and I hope their punishment is especially harsh.

Today’s attack in London was apparently part of an escalation for the group. They have also vandalized New Scotland Yard as well:

🎨 BREAKING: LORA JOHNSON THROWS PAINT ON MET POLICE HQ 🎨

⚖️ New oil and gas will lead to crop failure, food shortages and the collapse of law and order. Human civilisation as we know it is on the verge of collapse.#FreeLouis #FreeJosh #CivilResistance pic.twitter.com/EjeBaI8UcD

— Just Stop Oil ⚖️💀🛢 (@JustStop_Oil) October 14, 2022

One of the most bizarre aspects of the protests is that their excuse for doing so–that the cost of living is skyrocketing, that food production is at risk, and all the other dreck they spout about–is being driven by insufficient access to inexpensive, reliable energy. Oil production should be going up. The WEF-inspired politicians shouldn’t attack fertilizer use as they are in Europe.

In other words, they are demanding less of the very things that they would make their supposed worries disappear. More oil=more affordable food and energy.

I hope these people wind up rotting in jail for a long, long time. They deserve that and more.