Three arrested after Just Stop Oil target Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ again
Yesterday, two Just Stop Oil activists who had doused Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in soup in 2022 to raise awareness of climate change were given prison sentences. In response, three more Just Stop Oil activists voiced their anger by once again targeting Van Gogh’s work at the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
Back in October 2022, activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw Heinz tomato soup over Van Gogh’s masterpiece, Sunflowers (1888), before glueing themselves to the gallery itself. The stunt was to raise awareness for climate change and hold powerful people and institutions accountable for their part in the climate crisis. However, both Plumer and Holland were found guilty of criminal damage yesterday, and each received jail time as a result of the stunt.
Outside the court, many fellow Just Stop Oil activists protested the decision to jail the pair—Plummer received a two-year sentence and Holland received 20 months. The anger over the pair’s incarceration caused three further activists to once again visit the National Gallery and, once again, target Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
At around 2:30pm, three Just Stop Oil activists were said to have entered the gallery in London before throwing vegetable soup over Sunflowers (1888) and Sunflowers (1889). In a statement, the campaign group declared that the stunt was “a sign of defiance after the original soup throwers, Plummer and Holland were imprisoned for up to two years at Southwark Crown Court today.”
As a result of their actions, three of the protestors at the gallery were arrested and will likely face charges of criminal damage in the same manner as Plummer and Holland. One of the activists arrested yesterday, Ludi Simpson, said, “We will be held accountable for our actions today, and we will face the full force of the law. When will the fossil fuel executives and the politicians they’ve bought be held accountable for the criminal damage that they are imposing on every living thing?”
According to the gallery itself, these important works of art were largely undamaged during the incident. “The paintings were removed from display and examined by a conservator,” the National Gallery revealed in a statement. “The paintings are unharmed. We are aiming to reopen the [Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers] exhibition as soon as possible.”
The National Gallery has been a regular target for Just Stop Oil activism in recent years. Prior to Sunflowers being covered in soup back in 2022, protestors also targeted The Hay Wain by John Constable, with two protestors modifying the painting and then glueing themselves to it.
