Gathering for good

Five years and a day after Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral burned, a fire broke out on the roof of Copenhagen’s 400-year-old stock exchange building, known to locals as Børsen. Emergency responders, office workers, and pedestrians watched in shock as flames spread through the iconic building. Firefighters battled the fire on the upper floors while officials on the ground started pulling historic artwork out of the building. As Børsen burned, journalists documented a fascinating development: passersby were running into the building to help save the paintings, antique furniture, and other artifacts.

These Good Samaritans weren’t art historians; they were ordinary commuters or people out for a walk. If someone had asked them beforehand what was worth risking their life for, they probably wouldn’t have named Peder Severin Krøyer’s 1895 oil painting From Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Yet when the moment arose, they decided it was worth the risk.

Maybe they sensed that a culture is best embodied when its artifacts are regarded as shared possessions. Maybe their adrenaline was fed by the scene’s tangibility: the sound of crackling flames, the vivid colors splashed on canvases. Maybe they just saw six people lumbering under the weight of a massive painting and realized that a seventh could lighten the burden. For whatever reasons, these strangers spontaneously formed a transitory community around the idea of working toward a common good.