Just after the prison sentence of two activists, Just Stop Oil activists persisted and signed on Friday, September 27. Three activists wet two paintings of the Sunflowers by Van Gogh in the National Gallery in London.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. (local time, 3:30 p.m. in Paris), they opened containers of soup and dumped them on two of the Sunflowers by Van Gogh – one from 1888, already exhibited last time at the National Gallery, and the other from 1889, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art –, before revealing their t-shirts. “Let’s just stop the oil”We can see it in a video published on social networks.
These works, immediately examined by a curator, are not “damaged”The National Gallery said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that three people were detained by the police.
This action was organized in “sign of challenge” following the sentencing of Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, to two years and twenty months in prison by British justice on Friday morning, explains Just Stop Oil, which calls for an end to fuel exploitation fossils by 2030.
On October 14, 2022, these two activists poured soup on the board. Sunflowers of 1888 before putting his hands on the museum wall, a spectacular and highly publicized action to demand the immediate cessation of any new oil or gas projects in the United Kingdom. He had only slightly damaged the frame that surrounded the 1888 work, protected by glass.
“twenty-five activists in prison”
“People are imprisoned for demanding that oil and gas projects be stopped (…) Future generations will recognize that these prisoners of conscience were on the right side of history.”said activist Phil Green, 24, after pouring the soup on these works on Friday. Since mid-September, the National Gallery has been organizing an exhibition dedicated to the famous Dutch painter “Van Gogh. Poets and lovers”, which closed after the action.
The two activists, sentenced on Friday by Southwark court in London, should “serve at least half of his sentence in prison”stressed Just Stop Oil, whose “Currently twenty-five supporters are in prison”.
“You had no right to do what you did. Sunflowers »said Judge Christopher Hehir on Friday, who sentenced Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland for “criminal damage”. “The soup could have leaked through the glass.” and damage, “even destroy”the famous painting exhibited in the Trafalgar Square gallery, “a cultural treasure”he added during the hearing.
“Disproportionate sentence”
Shortly before the announcement of her sentence, Anna Holland stated that she did not expect “Justice from a broken system, which has been corrupted by its dependence on fossil fuels”. “Prison sentences, no matter how long, will not deter us”he added. “With these militant actions, I chose to peacefully disrupt an unjust, dishonest and murderous system”Phoebe Plummer said.
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The NGO Greenpeace denounced a “disproportionate punishment for a protest that caused minor damage to the picture frame and none to the canvas itself”. “This is another sinister step in the repression of peaceful protests” initiated by the previous Conservative government, said Will McCallum, co-chief executive of Greenpeace UK.
In July, several British NGOs and activists reported a decrease in freedom of demonstration following the harsh prison sentences imposed on five members of Just Stop Oil for organizing the blockade of an English motorway. Four of them were sentenced to four years in prison by the same judge, Christopher Hehir, and the founder of the organization, Roger Hallam, was sentenced to five years for having prepared this action.
