Just Stop Oil protesters who threw soup on Van Gogh painting found guilty
Two Just Stop Oil activists have been found guilty of criminal damage after throwing soup over a Vincent Van Gogh painting.
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, both 22, were found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of criminal damage after throwing tinned soup over van Gogh’s Sunflowers in 2022.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work hanging in the National Gallery in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting and glueing their hands to the wall beneath it.
While the painting was not harmed in the attack, there was damage to its 17th-century gold-coloured frame, which prosecutors said was “a piece of art in itself”.
The court had heard that the soup, which the pair bought at a nearby Tesco, acted like paint stripper on the wood frame.
In a video from the attack, Plummer can be heard saying: “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 pair had denied the charge of criminal damage over the action.
The two women were released on bail by Judge Christopher Hehir, who recently jailed five Just Stop Oil activists for between four and five years for disruption on the M25.
They are expected to be sentenced on Sept 27.
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.
The painting was the second from the National Gallery targeted by Just Stop Oil in 2022, with two supporters glueing themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain in July.
