Soup thrown at Van Gogh paintings hours after pair jailed

Just Stop Oil activists have poured soup over two Vincent Van Gogh paintings just hours after other members of the group were jailed for damaging the gold frame of the artist's Sunflowers.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Just Stop Oil said: "Breaking: 2 Van Gogh paintings souped hours after phoebe and anna sentenced.

"Three Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over two of Van Gogh('s) paintings in the 'Poets and Lovers' exhibition at the National Gallery".

The post featured a video of the activists vandalising the artwork before telling an angry crowd: "There are people in prison for demanding an end to new oil and gas, something which is now government policy after sustained, disruptive actions, countless headlines and the resulting political pressure.

"Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history."

The National Gallery confirmed the three activists had been arrested and the paintings remain unharmed.

A statement said: "At just after 2.30pm this afternoon, three people entered Room 6 of the National Gallery Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition.

"They appeared to throw a soup like substance over two works - Sunflowers (1888, National Gallery, London) and Sunflowers (1889, Philadelphia Museum of Art).

"Police were called and three people have been arrested. The paintings were removed from display and examined by a conservator and are unharmed.

"We are aiming to reopen the exhibition as soon as possible."

Earlier, Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, who threw tins of Heinz tomato soup on Sunflowers in October 2022, before glueing themselves to the wall below the painting, were jailed for criminal damage.

Staff at the gallery inspected the painting and frame for damage while the women were still attached to the wall, and were worried the soup may have dripped through the protective glass.

The soup caused up to £10,000 (€12,000) worth of damage to the frame, prosecutors said, though the painting - which was behind a protective screen - was unharmed and went back on display later the same day.

The pair pleaded not guilty but were convicted after a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court, where Plummer was sentenced to two years in prison for the criminal damage charge.

Holland was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Judge Christopher Hehir said Plummer and Holland "came within the width of a pane of glass of irreparably damaging or even destroying" the painting, which he said was "probably priceless in a literal sense".

"Soup might have seeped through the glass," he continued.

"You couldn't have cared less if the painting was damaged or not.

"You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers."

The judge told Plummer, who was also handed a criminal behaviour order: "You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not."

Plummer also received a three-month jail term for her part in a slow march which caused long tailbacks in west London in November 2023.

Raj Chada, defending Holland, said the women "did check" that the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.

Plummer, representing herself, told the hearing: "My choice today is to accept whatever sentence I receive with a smile.

"It is not just myself being sentenced today, or my co-defendants, but the foundations of democracy itself."

Painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, van Gogh's painting shows 15 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.

Two supporters glued themselves to John Constable's The Hay Wain in July of that year.

In 2022, Plummer said in front of the Sunflowers 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."

In July, just five days after her guilty verdict, Plummer was arrested for spraying paint on departure boards at Heathrow Airport.

A number of Just Stop Oil supporters gathered outside the court, some of whom held posters of historical figures jailed for activism.

Additional reporting Reuters