The protest is radical, but the attention is great: For weeks, climate activists have been sticking to works of art or throwing tomato soup and mashed potatoes at them.

Proponents speak of a shock tactic to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

For opponents, on the other hand, these are acts of vandalism against the works of art, which often cost millions of euros.

But the actions of groups like Just Stop Oil hardly leave anyone cold.

Two young people were on trial in London on Tuesday for having glued themselves to the frame of Vincent van Gogh's painting Peach Trees in Blossom at the Courtauld Gallery in late June.

The damage: almost 2000 pounds (2300 euros) - that's why Louis McKechnie has to be in prison for three weeks, he has several previous convictions.

Emily Brocklebank received the same sentence, but suspended for six months.

In addition, the 24-year-old is subject to an electronically monitored six-week curfew.

She does not regret the action.

"When it comes to protest, you don't get a platform with speeches," said the 24-year-old in court.

"Gluing creates a story that the media wants to follow." Columnist George Monbiot agreed in the British newspaper The Guardian: "'Serious' protest is flatly ignored."

The climate protectors – like Brocklebank and her comrade-in-arms Louis McKechnie – initially stuck to objects, but now they go further.

On October 23, activists from the Last Generation group spilled mashed potatoes on Claude Monet's protective-glass painting "Stacks of Grain" at Potsdam's Barberini Museum.

Gustav Klimt's painting "Death and Life", which is protected by glass, was poured with oil in Vienna's Leopold Museum.

There were similar attacks in famous museums in Rome, Melbourne and Canberra.

The initial spark is an action by Just Stop Oil in London's National Gallery, where two young women were thrown tomato soup in the direction of van Gogh's famous work "Sunflowers".

They pleaded not guilty in court, and the trial for damage to property is scheduled to begin in the British capital on December 13.

There was already a judge's decision in The Hague: three men were sentenced to two months in prison - one of them on probation - for an attack on the Johannes Vermeer painting "The Girl with a Pearl Earring".

Museums and galleries worldwide are alarmed.

"The activists responsible grossly underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects that must be preserved as part of our world heritage," said a recent joint statement from the heads of more than 100 art institutions.

But the sensational protest met with understanding.

“The climate activists are 1000 percent right.

And I support them 1000 percent," Irish rock musician and environmentalist Bob Geldof told Radio Times.

The activists are clever not to damage the actual works.

The attacks are just annoying.

"And annoying is a good thing," says Geldof.

Guardian columnist Monbiot rhetorically asked, "Do we really care more about van Gogh's sunflowers than real ones?" Also in the Guardian, Aileen Getty, granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, praised climate activists: "Nonviolent, civil resistance works .”

In London, activist Brocklebank said she was sure the painting's owner would have agreed to the protest.

"Any good person would agree to trying to preserve life on earth." She didn't do much damage: "Glue comes off again." Her comrade-in-arms McKechnie said during the campaign that he had the work he was working on now stuck, admired as a child with his father.

"I still love this painting, but I love my friends and family more, I love nature more," the 22-year-old said at the time.

Allegations against a 21-year-old activist who is said to have distracted security forces have been dropped.

However, he was fined for failing to appear in court, according to a report by the PA news agency.