Two radical climate activists who threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery in October 2022 have received prison sentences.
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer were found guilty of criminal damage in their attack, charges to which they had both pleaded not guilty.
Plummer received a sentence of two years, and Holland one of 20 months on September 27. Both women are 22 years old.
The painting itself was not damaged in their attack, but paint in the 17th-century gold-coloured frame suffered damage.
Prosecutors called the frame a piece of art in itself. The costs to repair it came to £10,000.
According to the sentencing judge, Christopher Hehir, the painting could have been “seriously damaged or even destroyed” if the soup had seeped through the protective glass.
“You couldn’t have cared less if the painting was damaged or not”, he said.
Judge Hehir branded the pair “idiotic” as he sentenced them.
“The frame was permanently damaged by your idiotic and criminal actions,” he said.
“The painting itself, Sunflowers, could have been seriously damaged or even destroyed. Your stance at trial was a blithe dismissal of the risk involved in what you did.”
He said the work “belongs to the entire world and his work is part of humanity’s shared cultural treasures.”
“You simply had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers, and your arrogance in thinking otherwise deserves the strictest condemnation.”
Judge Hehir described their actions as “pointless, self absorbed and self righteous law breaking”
Previously, in November 2023, Plummer was sentenced to three months in prison for her involvement in a slow march that resulted in lengthy backlogs in west London.
During the sentencing hearing, she said she would receive whatever sentence with a smile.
“It is not just myself being sentenced today, or my co-defendants, but the foundations of democracy itself,” said Plummer.
The judge responded it was “offensive” for Plummer to portray herself as a political prisoner “when you think of the people in dungeons around the world.” The UK did not have political prisoners, he said.
Breaking: The Just Stop Oil protesters who threw soup on a Van Gogh painting have been jailed.
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland have been found guilty of criminal damage. Phoebe Plummer got 2 years!
Good. Our leftist two-tier justice system finally got something right. pic.twitter.com/uYPQZXJbY3
— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) September 27, 2024
In October 2022, the two climate protestors had attacked Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery, then glued themselves to the wall beneath it.
The pair belong to the Just Stop Oil organisation, which launched a series of similar protests targeting famous artworks to draw attention to the use of fossil fuels.
The activists wanted to highlight that people were being forced to choose between heating their homes and buying food, due to rising energy costs.
“What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?” they yelled.
“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,” they said.
During the hearing, dozens of climate activists stood outside the court, protesting against the “political imprisonment.”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson told Brussels Signal, “these sentences are disgusting, a stain on our democracy.”
“But they are also a sign that they fear us and our collective power, our collective resolve to end fossil fuels before they end us,” added the spokesperson.
In a press release, Just Stop Oil said the judge had “turned repression into an art form.”
