Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, from the Just Stop Oil protest group, were sentenced to two years and 20 months in prison on September 27 for criminal damage. In October 2022, they threw two cans of tomato soup onto Van Gogh's famous painting "Sunflowers" at the National Gallery in London, damaging the artwork's yellow frame.
Phoebe Plummer (left) and Anna Holland after splashing soup on Sunflowers in October 2022. Photo: Just Stop Oil/PA Media
The "Sunflowers", worth more than $84 million, is protected by protective glass, but protesters are accused of causing £10,000 (more than $13,000) worth of damage to the painting's gold frame.
In court, Judge Christopher Hehir reprimanded Plummer and Holland, saying their actions could have caused "cultural treasures" to be "seriously damaged or even destroyed".
"The soup could have seeped through the glass. You didn't care if the painting was damaged. You had no right to do what you did to 'Sunflowers'," he said in court.
This is the latest in a series of prison sentences handed down to climate activists in the UK for taking part in protests against the use of fossil fuels.
However, these sentences do not appear to have had any deterrent effect on the Just Stop Oil movement. Hours after the sentence was handed down, three more Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at two more Van Gogh sunflower paintings in the Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery, the same venue for the 2022 protests.
Hoai Phuong (according to CNN)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/an-tu-cho-nhung-nha-hoat-dong-pha-hoai-buc-hoa-huong-duong-cua-van-gogh-post314453.html
Comment (0)