Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over two Vincent van Gogh paintings, just hours after two activists were given prison sentences for targeting one of the same works of art.
Three protesters threw an orange-coloured soup at the paintings in the Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery in central London. They have been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Earlier, Phoebe Plummer, 23, was given a two-year jail term, while Anna Holland, 22, got 20 months, for throwing soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers 1888 in October 2022. The pair caused £10,000 of damage to the frame of the glass-covered painting.
That artwork was one of the two targeted in the latest protest.
As the latest activists – two women and a man – threw soup over the two paintings, onlookers could be heard shouting “no” and “don’t do it”.
“Be on the right side of history,” one of the protesters shouted out as she stood in front of the painting, wearing a Just Stop Oil T-shirt.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Police were called at 14:40 on Friday, 27 September to the National Gallery after a group of Just Stop Oil protesters allegedly threw soup on a painting.
“Three people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and have been taken into custody. Inquiries continue.”
