Two environmental activists from the “Just Stop Oil” group were sentenced Friday by British courts to prison terms for throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh’s masterpiece, “The Sunflowers,” at the National Gallery in London.
Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison and Anna Holland, 22, received a 20-month prison term. The facts date back to October 14, 2022. They both carried out this spectacular action which only very slightly damaged the frame surrounding the 1888 work, protected by glass.
“You had no right to do what you did to the “Sunflowers,” said Judge Christopher Hehri, who sentenced the two young women. The soup could have seeped through the glass” and damaged, “or even destroyed” the famous painting,” he added.
For its part, the NGO Greenpeace immediately denounced a “disproportionate sentence for a demonstration which caused minor damage to a painting frame and none to the canvas itself”. “This is another sinister step in the last government’s crackdown on peaceful protests,” said Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK.
At the time, Just Stop Oil called for an immediate halt to any new oil or gas projects in the UK, a move the new Labor government has committed to.
In July, four activists from the same organization, who had organized the blocking of a motorway, were sentenced to four years in prison by British courts. The founder, Roger Hallam, was sentenced to five years for having prepared this action.
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