Oil protesters throw tomato soup on famous Van Gogh painting (VIDEO)
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers got a healthy helping of soup on Friday.
Just Stop Oil activists threw tomato soup on the famous painting at the National Gallery in London, protesting the production of fossil fuels in the UK.
A video posted to Twitter by The Guardian correspondent Damien Gayle shows two young women wearing “Just Stop Oil” T-shirts dumping cans of tomato soup on the legendary work of art.
Onlookers gasp in the background, shouting “Oh my gosh!” as one person calls for security.
The pair then proceed to glue their hands to the wall.
Activists with @JustStop_Oil have thrown tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the national Gallery and glued themselves to the wall. pic.twitter.com/M8YP1LPTOU
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) October 14, 2022
“What is worth more, art or life?” said the activist with pink hair in another video posted by Gayle to Twitter.
“Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”
According to The Guardian, that was 21-year-old Londoner Phoebe Plummer speaking. She was accompanied by 20-year-old Anna Holland from Newcastle.
“The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis, fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup,” added Plummer.
“What is worth more, art or life? … are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”@JustStop_Oil’s activists explain their action pic.twitter.com/LjvpQrhiDp
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) October 14, 2022
Fortunately, the painting is protected by glass, but the climate activists definitely got their point across.
Just Stop Oil has been staging demonstrations and sit-downs around central London for the past few weeks leading up to Friday’s protest.
🚶 Supporters of Just Stop Oil are again marching through Westminster (and will be for the rest of the month)#FreeLouis #FreeJosh #CivilResistance #A22Network pic.twitter.com/Xt6IPOKntL
— Just Stop Oil ⚖️💀🛢 (@JustStop_Oil) October 14, 2022
Plummer and Holland were arrested by London Metropolitan Police for criminal damage and aggravated trespass.
“Specialist officers have now un-glued them and they have been taken into custody to a central London police station,” police stated in a news release.
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This isn’t the first time a famous painting has been smothered in food by climate activists.
Earlier this year, a man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair smeared cake on the Mona Lisa.
He later revealed the stunt was an act of climate protest.
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