Activists jailed for throwing soup on Sunflowers

Two Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists have been jailed for throwing soup over Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting after they came close to "destroying" the masterpiece.

Phoebe Plummer, 23 and Anna Holland, 22, were previously convicted of criminal damage after the contents of two tins of tomato soup were poured on to the priceless 1888 piece at the National Gallery in central London.

They then glued their hands to the wall beneath it.

The pair caused £10,000 worth of damage to the gold-coloured frame of the glass-covered painting in the October 2022 attack.

Plummer, from Clapham in south-west London, received a two-year jail term at Southwark Crown Court, while Holland, from Newcastle, was handed 20 months.

Outside the court, a number of JSO supporters gathered, some of whom held posters of historical figures jailed for activism.

Staff at the gallery were worried the soup may have dripped through the protective glass and destroyed the painting, the court heard.

It also heard that the damaged frame had been purchased by the gallery in 1999 and was valued at £28,000.

Sentencing the women, Judge Christopher Hehir said the "cultural treasure" could have been "seriously damaged or even destroyed".

The judge, who previously jailed the co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion for five years, added that "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," he said.

Raj Chada, defending Holland, said the women "did check" that the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.

The pair were found guilty of criminal damage by a jury after three hours of deliberation in July.

The judge told Plummer, who was also handed a criminal behaviour order: "You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not."

Plummer, representing herself, told the hearing: "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."

Plummer was also handed a three-month sentence for her part in a slow march which caused long tailbacks in west London in November 2023 and in July, just five days after her guilty verdict, Plummer was arrested for spraying paint on departure boards at Heathrow Airport.

Painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, van Gogh's painting shows 15 sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.

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

Two supporters glued themselves to John Constable's The Hay Wain in July of that year.

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