September 27th 2024.
A fresh attack on Van Gogh's paintings has occurred at the National Gallery, just hours after two activists from Just Stop Oil were sentenced to jail for a similar act of vandalism. This time, three supporters of the organization entered the exhibition and threw Heinz vegetable soup over two of Van Gogh's famous 'Sunflowers' paintings.
One of the paintings, 'Sunflowers 1888', was the same one targeted by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland in their previous act of vandalism. The two women were sentenced to a combined total of three years and eight months for their actions in October 2022. After dousing the paintings in soup, the protesters revealed their Just Stop Oil t-shirts and spoke to the crowd, stating that they believed their actions were for the greater good and that future generations would see them as heroes.
This was not the first time that Plummer and Holland had targeted Van Gogh's paintings. In 2022, they threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work, causing an estimated £10,000 worth of damage. They even went as far as to glue their hands to the wall beneath the painting, while staff at the gallery inspected the damage. The court heard that the painting, which was purchased by the gallery in 1999 for £28,000, was considered a cultural treasure and could have been seriously damaged or even destroyed by the soup.
Judge Christopher Hehir, who had previously sentenced a co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion to five years in jail, expressed his disappointment in the women's actions. He stated that their disregard for the value of the painting and their belief that their cause justified their crimes was unacceptable. He also pointed out that they had no right to decide the fate of a priceless piece of art.
The judge sentenced Plummer to two years in jail and also issued her with a criminal behaviour order. He told her that her beliefs did not give her the right to commit crimes whenever she felt like it. Holland, who received a sentence of 20 months, had her lawyer Raj Chada defend her actions by claiming that they had checked to make sure the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.
During the hearing, Plummer chose to represent herself and boldly declared that she would accept whatever sentence was given to her with a smile. She stated that it was not just herself and her co-defendants being sentenced, but the very foundations of democracy itself. However, Judge Hehir found this statement offensive and reminded Plummer that in this country, there were no political prisoners.
This was not Plummer's first brush with the law. In November 2023, she took part in a slow march that caused traffic congestion in west London and received a three-month sentence for her actions. The jury took only three hours to find both Plummer and Holland guilty of criminal damage in July, which prompted Judge Hehir to state that they had come extremely close to destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world.
Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting, created in Arles, France in 1888, depicts 15 sunflowers in a yellow pot against a yellow background. This priceless work was not the only one targeted by Just Stop Oil in 2022. In July of that year, supporters of the organization glued themselves to John Constable's 'The Hay Wain'. Plummer, standing in front of the painting, questioned the value placed on art compared to that of life and the protection of our planet and people.
In a twist of events, just five days after her guilty verdict, Plummer was arrested for spraying paint on departure boards at Heathrow Airport. As the sentence was being given, a group of Just Stop Oil supporters stood outside the courthouse, holding posters of other historical figures who had been jailed for their activism. In the end, Plummer was sentenced to two years in jail, while Holland received a slightly shorter sentence of 20 months.
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