Climate change protesters who threw soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, according to Bob Geldof, were “1,000% right.”
The 71-year-old Irish musician said it was “clever” to deface the 1888 painting while it was hidden behind a glass screen because people would only see it as annoying, and “annoying is quite good.”
Two women from the Just Stop Oil movement have been charged in connection with the incident at the National Gallery earlier this month, which occurred amid larger Extinction Rebellion protests.
Geldof, a long-standing climate and humanitarian campaigner, said: “The climate activists are 1,000% right! And 1,000% I support them.
“It’s offensive to destroy Van Gogh’s genius. That achieves nothing. But it was clever to throw it on the glass knowing it wouldn’t be destroyed.
“That’s just annoying. And annoying is quite good.
“I was driving to Hyde Park when the Extinction Rebellion people blocked it and I was f****** furious.
“But I wasn’t railing against them. I was thinking, ‘If I was 18, would I be there?’ and the answer is yes.
“Annoying people into policy change may not work. Does that mean I’m against their passion? Their anger? Their bravery? No.
“Would I put up with it? They’re not killing anyone. Climate change will.” he told Radio Times.
Last week, Just Stop Oil has been accused of having “blood on their hands” when two women died in car accidents after being diverted from a bridge that the activists had shut down.