Legal Regulations and Solutions for the Protection of Public Art in the Context of Radical Environmental Protests

Ying Li

doi:10.6918/IJOSSER.202610_9(10).0012

Authors

Ying Li School of Art, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202610_9(10).0012

Keywords:

Radical environmental protests; public artworks; performative destruction; civil disobedience; principle of proportionality.

Abstract

Since 2022, radical environmental organizations in Europe (such as Just Stop Oil and Last Generation) have staged “performance protests” targeting public artworks such as Van Gogh’s *Sunflowers* and the *Laocoön Group*. Although these actions have not caused substantial damage to the cultural artifacts, they have sparked a conflict of legal interests between cultural heritage protection and freedom of expression regarding climate issues. Existing research has largely been confined to a single scientific perspective, lacking a systematic analysis of the dilemmas within legal regulation. Drawing on typical cases from the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and France, this paper identifies three regulatory models: “punitive approach,” “instrumental expansionism,” and “administrative control.” It further highlights issues within the current legal framework, including a doctrinal vacuum regarding the characterization of “symbolic damage,” an imbalance in the proportionality of regulatory tools, and the fragmentation of country-specific research. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes normative solutions such as establishing a “crime of disturbance to cultural property,” implementing a tiered system of protection and tolerance, and constructing a sentencing matrix based on the “risk of harm versus value of expression” to achieve a dynamic balance between cultural heritage protection and freedom of expression.

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References

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