Three activists from the British environmental organization Just Stop Oil threw soup again this Friday on two paintings by Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh at the National Gallery in London, shortly after two activists were sentenced to prison for vandalizing the same way “Les Tournesols” in October 2022.
The environmental organization itself confirmed this to the cries of the crowd.
“There are people in prison for calling for an end to new gas and oil (projects),” shouted the activists, referring to their companions Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, sentenced this Friday before London’s Southwark Magistrates’ Court. .
The two environmentalists were respectively sentenced to two years and twenty months in prison for damaging the golden frame of the painting “Sunflowers”, worth 10,000 pounds (nearly 12,000 euros).
All three were arrested
For its part, the National Gallery reported in a press release that the three activists were arrested and that the vandalized paintings, two others from the “Sunflowers” series, dating from 1888 and 1889 respectively, remain intact.
“The works have been removed from exhibition and examined by a conservator and are intact. We hope to be able to reopen the exhibition as soon as possible,” wrote the London museum.
In October 2022, Plummer and Holland, wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts, dumped the contents of two cans of Heinz tomato soup onto the 1888 work, before kneeling in front of it and leaning their hands against the wall.
Although the oil painting was not stained because it was protected by glass, the frame, which the museum bought in 1999 for 28,000 pounds (33,500 euros), was damaged.
Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Hehir said the activists “did not care at all whether the painting was damaged or not” and expressed regret that a “cultural treasure” may have been lost.
