Climate protesters paint case, pedestal of Degas sculpture in D.C.

This follows protests around the world targeting galleries and museums. In Europe, climate activists threw cans of tomato soup on one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings, “Sunflowers,” in London’s National Gallery and smashed cream pie into the face of King Charles’s wax statue at Madame Tussauds in London. Activists have also flung mashed potatoes on a Claude Monet painting at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. Climate activists glued themselves to a painting by Sandro Botticelli at the Uffizi museum in Florence and glued their hands to the frame of Pablo Picasso’s “Massacre en Corée” in Australia.

More activists are gluing themselves to art. Their tactics aren’t new.

Climate activists are turning to these types of disruptive tactics because they feel the world is running out of time to curb catastrophic, irreversible warming, said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland sociology professor who studies protests and social movements. She noted suffragists had slashed artwork in the past, and these recent protests target protective casings or frames as opposed to damaging the art.

The point, Fisher says, is to draw attention. And research shows these kinds of “radical tactics” can persuade people who are sympathetic to the climate issue to be more supportive of moderate perspectives, she said.

“This is purely performative protest. It’s disruption as shock,” Fisher said. “Nobody’s going to like these guys for throwing paint at Little Dancer … but that’s okay. That’s not their point. If the goal here is to get general attention and to shift the conversation to focus more on climate change, there’s a lot of evidence that this is more effective.”

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A recent U.N. climate report warned that the world is on track to pass a dangerous temperature threshold within the next 10 years that would result in catastrophic warming that could cause millions of people to die.

Fisher, who has studied the climate movement since the 1990s, predicts the lack of significant government action will push protesters to take more drastic action to bring attention to the climate crisis.

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“It leads to general strikes and leads to sit-ins. It leads to blockades. That’s where this is going. This is not going toward more people’s climate marches on a weekend day with a legal permit and a banner in the front,” Fisher said. “Desperation, in terms of frustration, is leading them so far to be disruptive but still completely nonviolent.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.