The Royal Court of England and Wales in the district of Southwark, London, sentenced two activists of the environmental movement Just Stop Oil to prison, who staged a protest near Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers” in the National Gallery. As informs Reuters, the court decided to imprison Phoebe Plummer for two years and Anna Holland for 20 months for causing material damage.
The incident occurred in October 2022, when activists threw cans of Heinz tomato soup at the Dutch artist’s masterpiece and glued themselves to the wall below the painting. Fortunately, thanks to the protective screen, the painting was not damaged and was returned to the exhibition the same day. However, the frame suffered up to £10,000 worth of damage.
Hours after the verdict was announced, three other Just Stop Oil activists again poured soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery and attacked another painting from the same series, which the Philadelphia Museum of Art has put on display. Both paintings were not damaged as they were protected by glass. All participants of the action were immediately detained by the police.
