Activists Throw Soup On Van Gogh Paintings Hours After Fellow Protesters Jailed

Activists Throw Soup On Van Gogh Paintings Hours After Fellow Protesters Jailed

On Friday, three activists from Just Stop Oil threw soup at two of Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” work at London’s National Gallery. This incident occurred simply hours after two different members of the protest group had been sentenced to jail for the same act in 2022.

The gallery in a press release stated “a soup-like substance” had been thrown over “Sunflowers” (1888) and “Sunflowers” (1889) and that three individuals had been arrested. 

The Just Stop Oil group (JSO) described their newest motion as a “signal of defiance” after two of its members had been jailed earlier on Friday for throwing soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” (1888) in October 2022. 

This incident is a part of a broader sequence of protests by JSO, which advocates for ending the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. These demonstrations have led to more and more strict responses from authorities, AFP reported. 

In July, Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, had been discovered responsible of felony injury for pouring tomato soup over the protecting display screen overlaying the well-known portray. Plummer obtained a two-year jail sentence on Friday, whereas Holland was sentenced to twenty months. Both had pleaded not responsible.

Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, condemned the sentences as “draconian and disproportionate” for what he described as minor injury to the image body.

However, Judge Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the activists, argued that the portray might have been “critically broken and even destroyed.” He criticized the pair for his or her indifference, stating, “You had no proper to do what you probably did to ‘Sunflowers’.”

Supporters of Plummer and Holland gathered outdoors Southwark Crown Court with banners declaring them “political prisoners.” The decide dismissed the notion, calling it “ludicrous, offensive and idiotic.” He informed Plummer, “You assume your beliefs entitle you to do something.”

The National Gallery reported that whereas the protesters prompted roughly $13,420 in injury to the body, the portray itself remained unhurt, protected by a display screen. Holland and Plummer had additionally glued themselves to the gallery wall in the course of the protest.

Plummer had already served 58 days in remand for an additional protest at London’s Heathrow Airport in July. McCallum described the sentencing as “one other grim milestone within the ongoing crackdown on peaceable protest,” including that protests are naturally “inconvenient and sometimes messy.”

Holland, forward of her sentencing, stated jail wouldn’t deter their activism.

JSO recognized these concerned in Friday’s protest as Phil Green, 24, Ludi Simpson, 71, and Mary Patricia Somerville, 77, who confirmed that they had thrown soup on the work. “We will face the complete pressure of the legislation,” stated Simpson, whereas questioning when fossil gas executives and politicians can be held accountable for the environmental injury they’re inflicting.

The gallery confirmed that the work had been examined by a conservator and located to be unhurt, with plans to reopen the exhibition as quickly as potential.