Museums GONE WILD!?!
TRIGGER WARNING: some links below contain violent videos and mentions human remains.
Proceed with caution!
Several museums (and one art fair) have been in the mainstream news a lot lately. Why? Stabbings, cake smearing activists and FBI raids! What is going on? Museums, in my opinion, have always been pretty innocuous, safe physical spaces. Psychologically safe? Not so much. Museums are still bastions of white supremacy, colonialism and imperial violence- not at all discounting that. And, museums are typically places people don’t worry about possibly loosing their lives or being physically harmed.
Since the spring of 2022, there’s been about seven reported WILD incidents at museums around the world. It makes me question safety protocols for frontline workers and the lowering of ethical standard in the museum field. Below are articles about these incidents. Are there more that you want to add to this list? Add them in the comments!
MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), NYC: Stabbing of two visitor services staff
Local news reported the attacker was denied entrance for previous incidents of disorderly conduct and was irate that his membership was revoked the day before.
Louvre, Paris: man dressed as elderly woman in a wheelchair smashed cake on the bulletproof protective glass of the Mona Lisa painting; seemed to be a protest about global warming as the man yelled "think about the earth" while being escorted out by security.
Harvard Crimson, Boston: released draft findings that Harvard holds human remains, of 19 likely enslaved individuals and almost 7,000 of Native Americans. The draft report reads: “The University’s focus should be on restoring individuality as far as possible through provenance research to open the possibilities of engaging specific, appropriate communities to consider memorialization.” See NAGPRA
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas: 21-year old man broke into the museum and destroyed about 5 Antiquities dating back to 500BCE, worth about $5 million. According to police reports, the burglar’s motive was being mad at his girlfriend…WHAT?!
Orlando Museum of Art, Florida: F.B.I. seized 25 works that had been shown in a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit and whose authenticity had been questioned. Subsequently the director was terminated.
Tefaf Art Fair, Netherlands: Two arrested in shocking armed robbery of stolen jewels at Maastricht art fair.
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London: Climate activists glue themselves to a Van Gogh painting. The protesters hope to combat political inaction in the face of the climate crisis. A tweet by @JustStop_Oil states, “If you are outraged by this action, ask yourself: is art worth more than life? More than food? More than justice? More than a livable future?”
