Climate Activists Invite UK Museum Leaders to Meet: ‘We’ll Leave the Soup at Home’

Just Stop Oil, the eco-activist group known for targeting famous artworks in their demonstrations, has invited the National Museum Directors’ Council to a meeting at London’s National Gallery—the site of a recent action by members of its student branch, Youth Demands—with a promise to “leave the soup at home.”

The invitation was included in an open letter from Just Stop Oil published today by the Art Newspaper, and is a direct response to a critical missive shared publicly by the consortium of UK museum leaders.

“These are the actions of a public who are scared, angry, but unwilling to give up. People unafraid to use the cultural power of their national institutions when those institutions fail to do so,” the Just Stop Oil letter reads. “We have some ideas on how you can mitigate this. Let’s meet next week, in a public location at the National Gallery. We have action takers who have risked liberty to call for an end to oil and gas that would love to speak with [National Gallery director] Dr. Gabriele Finaldi.”

On October 9, two activists with Youth Demand pasted a photograph of a Palestinian mother and child over the protective glass of Pablo Picasso’s 1901 painting Motherhood (La Maternité) at the National Gallery in London, in honor of the families killed in Gaza by Israel since October 7, 2023. In a video posted to Youth Demand’s Instagram page, museum security guard is seen ripping the photograph off the glass and forcibly removing the activists from its vicinity.

On October 11, the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) issued a plea for the group to end demonstrations at the National Gallery, citing five incidents of climate activism since July 2022, including the now-infamous hurling of tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The incident occurred an hour after two other members of the group were sentenced to prison for a similar protest involving Sunflowers in 2022. Just Stop Oil has not caused irreparable damage to any artwork involved in their actions.

“[The actions] are hugely damaging to the reputation of UK museums and cause enormous stress for colleagues at every level of an organization, along with visitors who now no longer feel safe visiting the nation’s finest museums and galleries,” the NMDC letter reads.

The letter concludes, “The world is currently in a very dark place, but these demonstrations now need to be taken away from our museums and galleries so that they can continue to provide light and solace to all.”

The Just Stop Oil letter stressed that the NMDC did not acknowledge in its statement the “climate emergency” or the responsibilities of its signatories as “custodians of our national treasures.”

“Today you take issue with soup and stickers, but tomorrow you will contend with rising waters in the Thames and deadly heat waves in the city,” the Just Stop Oil letter reads. “People disrupt museum and gallery spaces to break the illusion that everything is fine. We need institutions to confront their responsibilities at this time—head on.”

Youth Demand has called for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the UK government to end all oil and gas licenses granted since 2021. The group has warned on social media to expect more disruptions in other cities from November 11. 

The National Gallery, meanwhile, has announced a ban on all outside liquids except for baby formula, expressed milk, and prescription medicines. “Following recent incidents within the Gallery it is now necessary to introduce increased security measures to ensure the safety of all who visit, National Gallery staff and the nation’s collection of paintings,” the gallery wrote today on X.