The action was committed by the environmental group “Just Stop Oil” in protest against the end of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom. On the same day, two members of the organization were sentenced to prison for carrying out the same protest in 2022.
Three activists from the environmental group “Just Stop Oil“, they returned to throw soup this Friday against two paintings from the “The Sunflowers” series by Vincent Van Gogh at the National Gallery in London, shortly after two members of that organization were sentenced to prison for a similar action.
Around 2:30 p.m. local time, the three activists opened soup containers and threw all its contents against the crystals who protect the two canvases, and then began to loudly express their position and activism for the environment.
One of the two works, painted by the Dutch artist in 1888had already been the target of an attack with soup, in an action for which its two authors were sentenced this Friday to prison sentencesone for two years, and the other for 20 months. The second painting, 1889is on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the exhibition titled “Van Gogh: poets and lovers“.
Once the attack was completed, the three activists showed t-shirts with the name of your group, “Just Stop Oil“, who currently has 25 of his militants imprisonedas seen in a video broadcast on social networks with the exact moment of the incident. The worksimmediately examined by museum experts, “they are not damaged“as specified by the National Gallery in a statement, adding that the three people responsible for the incident were arrested.
The condemnation of the “Just Stop Oil” activists
This action was committed by the group in response to the sentences pronounced a few hours earlier by the Southwark Courtin London, against two of his colleagues for the attack on one of the paintings of “The Sunflowers” in October 2022.
Phoebe Plummer23 years old, was sentenced to two years in prisonand Anna Hollandfrom 22, to 20 monthsand detailed that both must serve “at least half of their sentence.” The action of the young women only damaged slightly the frame of that 1888 work, which was protected by glass.
“They had no right to do what they did to ‘The Sunflowers,'” the judge said Christopher Hehriwho pronounced the sentences. “The soup could have leaked through the glass and been damaged”or even destroyed” the famous painting added.
The group “Just Stop Oil” asks the end of fossil fuels between now and 2030 in the UK. The NGO Greenpeace denounced a “disproportionate penalty for a demonstration that caused minor damage to the frame of the work and the painting.” At the time of the events, the activist group called for the immediate cessation of any new oil or gas project in the United Kingdom.
Source: Ambito
