Two members of an environmental extremist group Please stop using oil A man will spend a significant amount of time behind bars after throwing soup at a priceless painting by legendary artist Vincent van Gogh.
In October 2022, Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer marched into the National Gallery in London and threw tomato soup at Van Gogh's 1888 artwork 'Sunflowers'. Then they also pasted their hands on the wall below.
“Nonviolent civil resistance is the best, if not the only, tool people have to bring about the rapid changes needed to save lives from the accelerating climate emergency.”
soup was roughly caused 10,000 pounds — or approximately $13,400 — substantial damage occurred to the frame surrounding the painting, but fortunately the painting itself was not damaged.
But it could have happened, Judge Christopher Hehir of Southwark Crown Court argued at Friday's sentencing hearing. As a result, Mr Hehir sentenced both defendants to prison after a jury found them guilty of criminal damage in July.
“You two came very close to irreparably harming and even destroying this priceless treasure. I am sure that is reflected in the text I am handing you.” Hehir said. during the public hearing.
Judge Hehir was not yet finished condemning the unrepentant extremists. “Neither of you had any right to do what you did to 'Sunflower.' Your arrogance to think otherwise deserves the strongest condemnation,” he continued.
In the end, Holland, 22, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and Plummer, 23, received 27 months in prison, including three months for disrupting national infrastructure during a demonstration in west London in November. was added for the crime. The Guardian newspaper reported.
When it was her turn to address the court, Plummer said that according to her X testimony, she preferred the pronouns “they/him/her.” ziggy stardyke — expressed no remorse, instead likening himself to other famous protest leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. She also seems to think that physically attacking valuable cultural artifacts is just another form of “nonviolent” protest.
“On October 14, 2022 and November 2023, I made the choice to take actions that I knew were likely to result in arrest and prosecution,” he wrote, calling himself the victim of false prosecution. I imagined it and said it. “I made this choice because nonviolent civil resistance is the only way to bring about the rapid changes needed to save lives from the accelerating climate emergency and the political decisions being made. It adds fuel to the fire and spells out a doomed future for all of us. ”
According to the Guardian, Mr Plummer and Mr Holland “blown a kiss to the audience” in court before being taken “to solitary confinement”.
In a show of solidarity with their imprisoned comrades, two other Just Stop Oil members imitated Plummer and Holland's crimes and posted a video just an hour or so after the women were sentenced. He appears to have thrown more soup at the “Sunflower” painting.
“Future generations will think that these prisoners of conscience are on the right side of history,” Phil Green, one of the alleged participants, said in response to the recent soup incident. Ta. Posted by Just Stop Oil video Post it on social media.
On the other hand, more 100 artists Plummer and Holland similarly argued that there was little risk of damage to Van Gogh's work by vandalism. The group also considers the defendants to be artists, boldly using Jackson Pollock-style “splatters” and “blooms” to make political statements.
“As artists, artists, and art historians, we are concerned that courts are upholding a false notion of artistic purity in their judgments and sentencing. “These activists should not receive custodial sentences for their actions, which are fully connected to the canon of art,” they said in the letter.
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