How Australian art galleries are responding to climate change protests

Australian art lovers are likely to fall under greater surveillance as they wander public galleries and museums amid this week’s climate change protest at the National Gallery of Australia.

Across the globe cultural institutions have been quietly tightening their public cordons and security presence around famous artworks, reversing a broader trend towards less oppressive security regimes around exhibitions.

Climate art protests have the the UK, Europe and Australia.Credit: Fairfax Media

Ninety-two cultural leaders co-signed a statement on Thursday warning activists severely underestimated the fragility of the irreplaceable objects they targeted. “As museum directors entrusted with the care of these works, we have been deeply shaken by their risky endangerment,” they said.

International museums of natural history are also said to be on alert for further acts of civic disobedience, and security for the December 3 opening of the Art Gallery of NSW’s Sydney Modern wing is expected to be robust if discreet.

A spokesperson for the art gallery said it took “very seriously its responsibility to manage and safeguard the collection while ensuring its accessibility for visitors”.

Australian Federal Police were called to the NGA on Wednesday when two women protesters fled after trying to glue themselves to the frame of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup 1.

The stunt came one month after two Extinction Rebellion protesters glued their hands to a Picasso painting at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, and followed similar protests on the global stage.

Protesters glue themselves to Warhol Campbell’s Soup display at the National Gallery of Australia.Credit: Twitter

Much like the Dark Lord in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, security protocols in the art world are rarely ever publicly spoken about.

Galleries are loath to speculate on acts of vandalism, protest or art heists lest they spark copycats. In any event, security is meant to be unobtrusive so as not to interrupt the public gaze or reinforce the concept of museums as elitist institutions.

The first layer of security in any art gallery lies with its attendants – with the manners of restaurant concierges, not nightclub bouncers – who keep an active watch on the valuable artworks and those who gaze at them.

Priceless works and masterpieces like the Warhol series sit behind protective glass and smaller precious items are usually displayed in smash-proof cases, with alarms, cameras and electronic triggers comprising basic electronic surveillance hardware of any major gallery.

Protesters glue themselves to a Picasso painting at the NGV.Credit: Twitter: Jane Morton

Screening of bags, common for all visitors of European galleries including the Louvre, is not yet part of the regular visitor experience in Australia.

Architect Andrew Andersons, one of Sydney’s foremost designers of gallery spaces, says the use of entrance scanners would likely alienate visitors in Australia, a country that does not live with the same terrorism threats as Britain.

“We want galleries to be friendly, we want them to be inviting,” he says. “At the same time, anything in an art gallery is something of real culture significance, and needs protecting.”

Director of Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney Chiara O’Reilly predicts increased monitoring of visitors as a result of the climate change protests. There would likely be a greater insistence that handbags and personal items be checked in at the cloakroom.

But in becoming more vigilant, O’Reilly says it’s important that galleries not specifically target young people or specific groups.

“These institutions need to expand their audiences, and so this is going to have to be very carefully managed because the prime aim of institutions is that they are accessible and open to their audience, and how you balance that against ensuring strong security is always a challenge.”

The NGA protest follows the smearing with cake of the bulletproof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, arguably the world’s most famous painting, in May.

Since then, John Constable’s 1821 masterpiece Hay Wain, Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery and Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence have been targeted.

Climate change protesters threw soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery.Credit: Just Stop Oil/Twitter

But it’s not the first time art has been held hostage to a cause, says Melbourne art critic Ray Edgar. The suffragette Mary Richardson was jailed after slashing Velasquez’s The Rokeby Venus multiple times with a hatchet in 1914 to protest the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ was destroyed with hammers for its alleged blasphemy by Catholic fundamentalists in the French city of Avignon.

O’Reilly says the masterpieces were targeted because of the public’s deep emotional attachment to these iconic works. Such acts of civil disobedience appear to be borne of political frustration and inventiveness.

While protesters had taken care to select works behind glass so as not to damage them – the Warhol artwork was cleaned up and rehung the same day – the chance of inadvertent harm would likely keep gallery directors awake at night.

“These actions do not come without a cost,” O’Reilly says. “The core role of an institution is to protect and care for its collection and anything that risks these works is distressing for institutions and their staff who must worry that something will go wrong, that these activists mispick a painting that doesn’t have glass or the frame is inadvertently damaged – that’s very possible. Works internationally, have of course also been damaged by visitors tripping over or attempting to get the perfect selfie in galleries – so it has happened.”

Galleries are obliged to keep an inventory of incidents relating to displayed and stored works they are bound to share with fellow institutions before works go on loan. For those galleries whose activities are not underwritten by government, their record of care and custodianship can potentially influence premiums.

O’Reilly thinks the protesters will eventually move on: “They’ve climbed trees to protect them, they’ve chained themselves to mining equipment, glued hands to roads and bridges; this is another example in this movement to raise awareness and change attitudes, and I imagine there will be different forms of protest that follow.”

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