On Friday, three activists from Simply Cease Oil threw soup at two of Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” work at London’s Nationwide Gallery. This incident occurred simply hours after two different members of the protest group have been sentenced to jail for the same act in 2022.
The gallery in a press release mentioned “a soup-like substance” had been thrown over “Sunflowers” (1888) and “Sunflowers” (1889) and that three folks had been arrested.
The Simply Cease Oil group (JSO) described their newest motion as a “signal of defiance” after two of its members have been jailed earlier on Friday for throwing soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” (1888) in October 2022.
🚨 BREAKING: 2 VAN GOGH PAINTINGS SOUPED HOURS AFTER PHOEBE AND ANNA SENTENCED
🥫 3 Simply Cease Oil supporters have thrown soup over 2 of Van Gogh work within the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition on the Nationwide Gallery.
➡️ Help folks in resistance: https://t.co/Rh65arOwa1 pic.twitter.com/Tc3Bvd10OB
— Simply Cease Oil (@JustStop_Oil) September 27, 2024
This incident is a part of a broader sequence of protests by JSO, which advocates for ending the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. These demonstrations have led to more and more strict responses from authorities, AFP reported.
In July, Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, have been discovered responsible of felony injury for pouring tomato soup over the protecting display screen overlaying the well-known portray. Plummer obtained a two-year jail sentence on Friday, whereas Holland was sentenced to twenty months. Each had pleaded not responsible.
Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, condemned the sentences as “draconian and disproportionate” for what he described as minor injury to the image body.
Nonetheless, Decide Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the activists, argued that the portray might have been “severely broken and even destroyed.” He criticized the pair for his or her indifference, stating, “You had no proper to do what you probably did to ‘Sunflowers’.”
Supporters of Plummer and Holland gathered outdoors Southwark Crown Court docket with banners declaring them “political prisoners.” The choose dismissed the notion, calling it “ludicrous, offensive and idiotic.” He advised Plummer, “You assume your beliefs entitle you to do something.”
The Nationwide Gallery reported that whereas the protesters induced roughly $13,420 in injury to the body, the portray itself remained unhurt, protected by a display screen. Holland and Plummer had additionally glued themselves to the gallery wall throughout the protest.
Plummer had already served 58 days in remand for one more protest at London’s Heathrow Airport in July. McCallum described the sentencing as “one other grim milestone within the ongoing crackdown on peaceable protest,” including that protests are naturally “inconvenient and infrequently messy.”
Holland, forward of her sentencing, mentioned jail wouldn’t deter their activism.
JSO recognized these concerned in Friday’s protest as Phil Inexperienced, 24, Ludi Simpson, 71, and Mary Patricia Somerville, 77, who confirmed that they had thrown soup on the work. “We’ll face the total pressure of the regulation,” mentioned Simpson, whereas questioning when fossil gas executives and politicians can be held accountable for the environmental injury they’re inflicting.
The gallery confirmed that the work have been examined by a conservator and located to be unhurt, with plans to reopen the exhibition as quickly as potential.