Three individuals targeted National Gallery paintings an hour after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed for similar attack in 2022
Climate activists have thrown tomato soup over two Sunflowers paintings by Vincent van Gogh, just an hour after two others were jailed for a similar protest action in 2022.
Three supporters of Just Stop Oil walked into the National Gallery in London, where an exhibition of Van Gogh’s collected works is on display, at 2.30pm on Friday afternoon, and threw Heinz soup over Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888.
The latter was the same work targeted by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland in 2022. That pair are now among 25 supporters of Just Stop Oil in jail for climate protests.
I don’t remember where, but I’ve read they’re funded by oil companies. I think it’s actually surprisingly effective, because generating outrage is the point of demonstrations like this. Also, iirc, all their targets so far have been behind protective barriers, so no real damage either. Should they be inconveniencing oil execs? Sure! (I’d honestly prefer if they [comment cannot legally be completed], but that’s probably asking too much.) But their current strategy gets more attention, and more attention gets better awareness. No one cares about a rich asshole. Everyone cares about world-famous art.