Two Just Stop Oil activists have been found guilty of criminal damage for hurling tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery, damaging its antique frame. The Times has more.
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both 22, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup at Sunflowers and then glued themselves to the wall in October 2022.
Although the painting, which was completed in 1888 and is worth up to £72.5 million, was protected by a glass cover, the 17th-century Italian frame was damaged by the soup, which acted like paint stripper, Southwark crown court was told. Prosecutors believe the soup may have caused £10,000 worth of damage to the frame.
The pair, who denied damaging property, showed no emotion as the jury announced its verdict after a four-day trial. Judge Christopher Hehir released them on bail before their sentencing on September 27th. Hehir told the activists to come to court “prepared in practical and emotional terms to go to prison on that date”.
The maximum sentence for the offence is ten years’ imprisonment. The bail conditions stipulate that they must not carry glue, paint or any adhesive substance in a public place and must not visit any galleries or museums.
The court was told that the pair had visited the museum a day before the incident to carry out reconnaissance and bought the tins of soup from a supermarket.
In a statement read to the jury, Isabella Kocum, a frame conservator, said she was “shocked and dismayed by the extent of corrosion this tomato soup” caused to the “exquisite antique frame”. …
Plummer and Holland said they were taking instructions from someone else in Just Stop Oil but refused to identify the person. …
In her closing speech, Plummer claimed that she was “sounding an alarm bell” on climate change and invoked the example of the suffragettes and the civil rights movement in the United States.
Worth reading in full.
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