Just Stop Oil activists handed jail terms for soup attack on Van Gogh artwork

Two Just Stop Oil activists have been handed prison sentences for pouring soup on Vincent van Gogh's iconic 'Sunflowers' painting at the National Gallery in London. Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, were found to have potentially caused up to £10,000 in damage to the painting's frame during their protest last October.

Plummer was handed a two-year sentence, while Holland received a 20-month term for their actions, which involved hurling Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 masterpiece before gluing themselves to the wall below it. The gallery staff had to assess the painting and its frame for any damage while the activists remained glued, concerned that the soup might have penetrated the protective glass.

The court was informed that the frame, acquired by the gallery in 1999, was worth £28,000 prior to the incident. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Christopher Hehir highlighted the risk of serious damage or destruction to the "cultural treasure" and condemned the pair's disregard for the artwork's safety.

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Judge Hehir, who has previously sentenced the co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion to five years in prison, remarked: "Soup might have seeped through the glass. You couldn't have cared less if the painting was damaged or not. You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers."

The judge, addressing Plummer who was also given a criminal behaviour order, stated: "You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not." Raj Chada, defending Holland, mentioned that the women "did check" that the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.

Representing herself, Plummer told the court: "My choice today is to accept whatever sentence I receive with a smile. It is not just myself being sentenced today, or my co-defendants, but the foundations of democracy itself."

Judge Hehir found it "offensive" for Plummer to portray herself as a political prisoner "when you think of the people in dungeons around the world."

He added: "We don't have political prisoners in this country," Plummer was also given a three-month sentence for her part in a slow march which caused long tailbacks in west London in November 2023.

After three hours of deliberation in July, Holland and Plummer were found guilty of criminal damage by a jury, after which Judge Hehir said they "came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world". Van Gogh's painting, painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, depicts 15 sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.

The priceless work was the second from the National Gallery to be selected as a target for protest action by Just Stop Oil in 2022.

In a similar act, two Just Stop Oil supporters famously adhered themselves to John Constable's The Hay Wain back in July. Standing before the iconic artwork in 2022, activist Hannah Plummer boldly questioned onlookers: "What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?"

She then challenged the public by asking, "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." Following her conviction for that protest, Plummer didn't relent; just five days later, she was apprehended once more for spraying paint on the departure boards at Heathrow Airport.

Outside the courthouse, support was palpable as numerous Just Stop Oil backers convened, some carrying posters bearing images of historical figures who were themselves incarcerated for their acts of activism.

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