The public and performative destruction of art seems to be having a bit of a moment. In the last three weeks alone, Just Stop Oil protesters have thrown tins of tomato soup over a Van Gogh painting in London (albeit a glass-covered one); a separate group of climate activists has hurled mashed potato at a Monet in Potsdam; and artist Damien Hirst has burnt hundreds of his own artworks after buyers chose to hold them virtually as NFTs instead.