Three activists from the British environmental organization Just Stop Oil They threw soup again this Friday about two paintings by the Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh kept at the National Gallery in London, shortly after two colleagues were imprisoned for vandalizing “Los Girasoles” in the same manner in October 2022.
This was confirmed by the environmental organization itself on its X account (formerly Twitter), accompanied by a video in which three activists appear at the exhibition dedicated to Van Gogh at the London Museum, mix tomato soup two of the paintings and addressing the crowd by shouting.
“There are people in prison for asking end of new gas and oil (projects)said the activists, referring to their companions Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, sentenced this Friday by Southwark court in London. 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).
For its part, the National Gallery reported in a press release that the three activists were arrested and the tables vandalized, two others from the “Los Girasoles” series, dating from 1888 and 1889 respectively, They remain intact. “The works have been removed from the exhibition and examined by a conservator and are intact. We hope to be able to reopen the exhibition as quickly as possible,” writes the London museum.
In October 2022, Plummer and Holland, wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts, threw out the contents of two cans of Heinz tomato soup. on the 1888 work, before kneeling in front of it and leaning his 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.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Christopher Hehir said the activists “They don’t care if the painting is damaged or not” and regretted that a “cultural treasure” could have been lost.
