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Three activists threw soup on two more Van Gogh paintings, hours after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were sentenced to prison.
Just stop using oil
At the end of 2022, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland came to London National Gallery and threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh‘S Sunflowers. The duo wore shirts with the logo on them Just stop using oila controversial environmentalist group known for its nonviolent demonstrations in protest against fossil fuels.
“What is more valuable: art or life?” Plummer asked museum visitors. ‘Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about protecting a painting, or protecting our planet and people?”
The soup did not damage the painting – which was protected behind glass – but did cause an estimate Worth $13,400 of damage to the 17th century frame. When the two protesters were found guilty of criminal damage in July, Judge Christopher Hehir ruled told them to be “prepared in practical and emotional terms to go to prison.” Now he has sentenced Plummer, 23, to two years behind bars. Holland, 22, got 20 months.
In 2022, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland taped their hands to the gallery wall after throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s paintings Sunflowers. Just stop using oil/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/c6/ef/c6ef9df3-d8a0-4318-ac2b-1afe1e24f79a/signal-2022-10-14-120729_002_1.jpeg)
“The action you took was extreme, disproportionate and criminally idiotic,” Hehir said in court Politicsby Karl Mathiesen. “You came within the width of a window, causing irreparable damage or destruction to the painting.”
During the trial, activists emphasized that the verdict would not hinder their efforts to fight climate change WashingtonPost‘, reports Shannon Osaka. “I made my choices and I’m happy with them,” Plummer said at the sentencing on September 27. “I have found peace by acting on my conscience.”
A few hours later, three more climate activists arrived at the National Gallery. They entered the museum’s new Van Gogh exhibit – “Poets and Lovers” – and threw soup on two of the Dutch Post-Impressionist’s sunflower paintings.
“There are people in jail because they demand an end to new oil and gas,” one of the protesters said in a speech video of the incident, adding: “Future generations will view these prisoners of conscience as being on the right side of history.”
After examining the two paintings, experts determined that they were not damaged Hyperallergicby Isa Farfan. The activists have been arrested and the works of art can already be seen in the exhibition.
BREAKING: 2 VAN GOGH PAINTINGS THAT LAST HOURS AFTER PHOEBE AND ANNA WERE CONVICTED
3 Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup on 2 Van Gogh paintings in the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery.
Support people in resistance: https://t.co/Rh65arOwa1 pic.twitter.com/Tc3Bvd10OB
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) September 27, 2024
Just stop using oil goal is to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal in the UK by 2030. In recent years, activists affiliated with the organization – and similar groups around the world – have organized climate protests at museums and cultural institutions, often targeting famous works of art and artefacts.
The British government has responded with new laws Human Rights Watch describes it as ‘draconian’. According to Just stop using oilmore than twenty climate protesters are now behind bars in Britain
Earlier this week, Greenpeace Great Britain released a open letter signed by more than 100 artists, curators and art historians requesting that Plummer and Holland be spared prison time. They argued that their stunt belongs to a long tradition of similar artistic acts.
“Since at least 1900, avant-garde artists have evoked or performed iconoclasm as part of their artistic practice,” the letter reads. “These activists should not receive custodial sentences for an act that is entirely in line with the artistic canon. … [The protest] will inevitably enrich the story and social meaning of Sunflowers; and will be remembered, discussed and appreciated in its own right as a creative and perceptive work.”
During the sentencing, Plummer gave a 20-minute speech to the judge Guardian‘s Damien Gayle.
“I believe nonviolent civil resistance is the best, if not the only, tool people have to create the rapid change needed to protect life from the accelerating climate crisis,” Plummer said. add: “If you think that an authoritarian approach to today’s sentencing will somehow deter ordinary people from standing up for justice, I believe you are proven wrong.”
