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Two guilty of criminal damage after throwing soup on Van Goghs Sunflowers
25/07/2024
Two Just Stop Oil activists have been found guilty of criminal damage after throwing tinned soup at one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings.
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, both 22, damaged the frame of the post-impressionist’s Sunflowers in London’s National Gallery.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting and glueing their hands to the wall beneath it.
Tomato soup covered the image, which is covered by glass, as well as parts of the gold-coloured frame.
Visitors were escorted out by security, who then shut the doors to the room where the painting hangs.
Having denied the charge, Plummer, from Clapham, and Holland, of Newcastle, were found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court.
A number of Just Stop Oil supporters were present in the court room as the verdict was delivered.
In 2022, Plummer said in front of the painting: “What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?
“Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people? The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost-of-oil crisis.”
The protesters were later seen being bundled into a police van at the back entrance of the gallery.
Painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, van Gogh’s painting shows fifteen sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.
The priceless work was the second from the National Gallery to be selected as a target for protest action by Just Stop Oil in 2022, with two supporters glueing themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain in July of that year.
Judge Christopher Hehir – who last week jailed the co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion for five years at the same court – told the duo they will be released on bail until they are sentenced on September 27 at the same court.
Their bail conditions stipulate that they must not carry glue, paint or any adhesive substance in a public place, and must not visit any galleries or museums.
Published: by Radio NewsHub