Two environmental activists from the group Just Stop Oil were found guilty of vandalism on Thursday, last week, after throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh’s masterpiece Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, both 22, were found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London. They will be sentenced on September 27. On October 14, 2022, they both carried out this spectacular action, which only slightly damaged the frame surrounding the 1888 work, which was protected by glass.
It is worth noting that at the time, Just Stop Oil was calling for an immediate halt to all new oil and gas projects in the UK, a move that the new Labour government has taken up. The group is now calling for an end to fossil fuels by 2030.
Wearing T-shirts that read “Just Stop Oil”, the two young women threw the contents of two soup cans onto the work. After sticking to a wall, one of them, Phoebe Plummer, said: “What is more valuable, art or life?” “Are you more concerned about protecting a painting than protecting our planet and its inhabitants?” she asked.
Since this action, other environmental activists have targeted other internationally renowned works of art, including the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, whose bulletproof glass was sprayed with soup.
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