National museum directors in the UK have issued an open letter saying that protests targeting their galleries and works “have to stop”, adding that such attacks “cause enormous stress for colleagues at every level of an organisation, along with visitors who now no longer feel safe visiting the nation’s finest museums and galleries”.
The letter was written by the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC), which represents the leaders of the UK’s national collections—including the National Gallery and the British Museum—and major regional museums.
The authors of the letter say that they are speaking out now after the most recent attacks at the National Gallery. Since July 2022, the museum on Trafalgar Square has been targeted several times by the environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil, including attacks on John Constable’s The Hay Wain, Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus and Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Earlier this week, two people from the campaign group Youth Demand were arrested after a painting by Pablo Picasso, Motherhood (La Maternité) (1901), was briefly covered by protestors with a photograph of a Gazan mother and child.
The open letter ends by saying that the demonstrations now “need to be taken away from our museums and galleries so that they can continue to provide light and solace to all”.
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil says: “If the NMDC believes the biggest threat they face is nonviolent protest, they should speak to the staff that are now sleeping in Florida’s Salvador Dali museum after their houses were destroyed by a supercharged hurricane.”
