Vandals of Civilization: Why Climate Activists Attack Our Cultural Heritage

Defacing works of art functions as a siren shriek — and an assertion of the importance of the protesters themselves

I still remember really seeing John Constable’s painting The Hay Wain for the first time. After many years of viewing it through the veil of a screen or a book, I was at last standing in front of the painting itself at the National Gallery in London.

In person, the details come alive. Constable renders the particulars of the 19th-century British countryside with dazzling care. The swirls of clouds in the sky seem a ballet of the brush. The grass and trees show an almost unfathomable range of greens. The shifting surface of the water has a tremulous glamour. First exhibited in 1821, The Hay Wain is Constable’s tribute to the deep beauty of nature.