Just Stop Oil activists throw soup over two more Van Gogh paintings in revenge for jailing Sunflowers vandals
The trio of eco-activists daubed a pair of Van Gogh paintings after their fellow protesters were setenced
JUST STOP OIL
Just Stop Oil activists have thrown soup over two more Vincent van Gogh paintings in revenge for the jailing of two vandals who did the same thing in 2022.
The protest group called the copycat soup-throwing a "sign of defiance" after its members, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, were imprisoned for up to two years at Southwark Crown Court earlier today.
At around 2.30pm, three demonstrators from the controversial group threw Heinz vegetable soup over two of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" series - one from 1889 and one from 1888, the latter of which had been daubed with the orange liquid two years ago.
The trio defended their imprisoned comrades to attendees at the Van Gogh "Poets and Lovers" exhibition at the National Gallery.
One Just Stop Oil member claimed "future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history"
JUST STOP OIL
One Just Stop Oil member, Phil Green, 24, claimed: "Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history."
While another demonstrator, 71-year-old retired professor Ludi Simpson, said: "My action is from the heart and the head. I know politicians can do the right thing if they listen to the facts, but their inaction is burning up our lives.
"Is it too much to ask for a safe future? Soup on sunflowers is a splash of protest. The treasured pictures remain unharmed.
"What is harming our future is the criminal greed of the fossil fuel economy. Our government can choose to end it now!"
MORE ECO-ZEALOT MADNESS:
The 1888 "Sunflowers" painting has been daubed with soup for the second time
JUST STOP OIL
The Metropolitan Police said a trio had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
A spokesman for the force told GB News: "Police were called at 2.40pm on Friday, September 27, 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."
The group's alleged copycat crime came just as JSO sympathisers took to the streets of London outside Southwark Crown Court to protest the jailing of Phoebe Plummer 23, and Anna Holland, 22.
In court, Judge Christopher Hehir - who dished out record sentences for protesters who conspired to block the M25 earlier this year - said the "cultural treasure" could have been "seriously damaged or even destroyed" by the duo.
The Met told GB News: "Three people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and have been taken into custody"
JUST STOP OIL
The group's alleged copycat crime came just as JSO sympathisers took to the streets of London
PA
Judge Hehir said: "You couldn't have cared less if the painting was damaged or not. You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers."
The judge told Plummer, who was also handed a criminal behaviour order: "You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not."
Raj Chada, defending Holland, said the women "did check" that the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.
Plummer, representing herself, told the hearing: "My choice today is to accept whatever sentence I receive with a smile. It is not just myself being sentenced today, or my co-defendants, but the foundations of democracy itself."
But the judge said it was "offensive" for Plummer to portray herself as a political prisoner "when you think of the people in dungeons around the world".
"We don't have political prisoners in this country," he added.
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