The universe offers sanctuaries, where one goes to filter out the noise of chaos and to calm one’s soul. Abodes of worship, lush forests and riversides, the mountains and the sea, and of course, art museums. Ironically, these are the spaces that are now gradually holding the violence of human evolution. Trees are being mercilessly chopped down, worship has become a public proclamation, while art museums have become protest sites. A few days ago, activists hung a framed photograph of Britain’s ex-Prince Andrew inside the world-famous Louvre Museum. It wasn’t any slice of British royal history that was on display, if that’s what you think. It was an image captured by a Reuters photographer of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor seated in the back of the car, looking appalled after his arrest last Thursday.
The British group, Everyone Hates Elon, which was formed in 2025 to take on the negative influence of billionaires, claimed responsibility for the act that they captioned as ‘He’s sweating now’. The title was in reference to the former Prince’s 2019 interview in which he claimed that he had a medical condition that prevented him from sweating. His statement was in response to accusations by the late Virginia Giuffre, who declared that she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to the former British royal. In her allegations, she claimed to have seen Mr. Mountbatten- Windsor sweating profusely in a nightclub in 2001.
Art museums have often been witnesses to all genres of protests within their tranquil interiors. Climate change activists have turned to vandalising priceless paintings, housed in iconic museums, as a form of resistance in the past few years. Defacing valuable art and shouting slogans while doing so have become their modus operandi to focus the world’s attention on urgent environmental issues. Even the Mona Lisa wasn’t spared and had cake smeared on her beautiful smile (thankfully, the bulletproof glass saved her skin). And Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ had to settle for soup!
Think about it. Why have museums become choices for acts of resistance? Simply because art is considered a country’s pride and museums are popular places that visitors flock to, standing in long ticket queues when needed. An act of dissent within its premises would surely garner worldwide attention.
Now, shift your thoughts to a similar spectacle in any museum in our country — an easy task indeed because the art museums that we can boast of could be counted in a split second on our fingers. Allow your mind to imagine a group of activists raising an outcry in its still confines. Not a murmur would be heard outside. No media would come rushing to cover it, nor would there be a visiting crowd loitering around, ready to be shocked. At most, the stunt would get a passing mention on social media, only to be lost in an ocean of posts yet to be scrolled.
Our art is safe, in that respect. The public’s lack of interest in museums serves as its knight in shining armour perhaps. On the other hand, what does it actually say about our disregard for cultural histories that accounts for our museums remaining empty? A point to ponder indeed.