Just Stop Oil activist Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer were chastised for their “criminally idiotic” act at the National Gallery
In October 2022, two young climate activists stunned the globe by hurling tomato soup cans over the well-known Vincent van Gogh artwork “Sunflowers.”
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer contended that they had no intention of causing any harm because they were aware that the artwork was protected by a glass screen.
Who is Anna Holland as Just Stop Oil activist is jailed for 20 months for throwing soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting
The court, however, retorted, “Neither of the defendants are stupid; they knew that soup would inevitably get on the painting’s frame if two soup tins were thrown at it.”
An open letter, signed by artists and art historians, urged Judge Hehir to spare the campaigners from a jail sentence, arguing that the prank was an artistic creation in and of itself and that the soup splatter was evocative of Jackson Pollock’s works.
Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, received jail sentences as part of a fresh crackdown on the extreme environmental protests that have taken place all over the world in recent years. Holland received twenty months, and Plummer received two years of imprisonment.
Before Anna who is a Newcastle University graduate joined Just Stop Oil and started actively taking actions that were a bit more disruptive, she felt like she was in a massive rut and was completely overwhelmed by climate anxiety and climate grief.
โI made my choices and Iโm happy with them,โ Plummer said Friday during the sentencing phase of the trial. โIโve found peace in acting on my conscience.โ
A few hours later, at the London National Gallery, three demonstrators donning Just Stop Oil T-shirts splashed soup on two more Van Gogh paintings. In a video that was shared on social media, one of the demonstrators yelled, “There are people in prison for demanding an end to new oil and gas.” Some museum goers let out a surprise and exclaimed, “No!”
Breaking: The Just Stop Oil protesters who threw soup on a Van Gogh painting have been jailed.
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland have been found guilty of criminal damage. Phoebe Plummer got 2 years!
Good. Our leftist two-tier justice system finally got something right. pic.twitter.com/uYPQZXJbY3
โ Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) September 27, 2024
Just Stop Oil, an activist group based in the United Kingdom, organized a protest in October 2022 that inspired other similar events both domestically and internationally. Soon later, German climate demonstrators tossed mashed potatoes into a Claude Monet picture; this summer, demonstrators threw paint containing powder onto a standing stone at Stonehenge and a 66-year-old activist interrupted a Wimbledon tennis match.
In addition to causing resentment from locals, the disruptions have made Just Stop Oil a household brand in Britain. They were referred to as “eco-zealots” by former prime minister Rishi Sunak, and in recent court cases, judges have taken harsh measures against the activists.
Activists scaled gantries over the M25, one of the busiest roads in the nation, in one instance from 2022. Five of them received terms ranging from four to five years in prison, which are believed to be the harshest ever imposed in Britain for a peaceful demonstration.
Two Just Stop Oil activists, Phoebe Plummer (23) and Anna Holland (22), have been sentenced to two years and 20 months in prison, for throwing soup over the glass-protected Van Goghโs โSunflowers.โ
Despite causing no physical damage to the artwork, both received significantโฆ pic.twitter.com/3VVx8SmMbg
โ Oh So Super ๐๏ธ (@OhSoSuper) September 28, 2024
Both Plummer and Holland testified during the “Sunflowers” case trial that serving jail time would not stop them from advocating for climate action.
The activists, according to the prosecution, just missed breaking the picture and damaged the surrounding 17th-century Italian frame up to 10,000 pounds, or $13,400.