‘Just Stop Oil’ Activists Throw Soup Cans on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’

Environmental protesters threw tomato soup this Friday on the famous painting “Sunflowers” in Vincent van Goghwhich was not damaged, to demand that the British government put an end to new oil and gas extraction projects.

As part of a month of protests in London, two activists from the civil disobedience group “Just Stop Oil” They entered the morning National Gallery and two cans of Heinz soup were thrown on the canvas, which was protected by glass, videos posted on social media showed.

The frame suffered “minor damage” but the painting was “intact”, the London art gallery later announced. Painted in 1888 by the Dutch impressionist master, the work is valued at 84.2 million dollars.

By Friday afternoon, it had already been cleaned and relocated, the museum said.

With this spectacular action, “Just Stop Oil” sought to demand that the British executive stop all new hydrocarbon exploitation projects in the country, the environmental organization said in a statement.

After throwing the thick substance, they knelt in front of the work and glued themselves to the wall.

Museum security arrived shortly afterward and ushered visitors out of room 43 where “The Sunflowers” is on display.

Scotland Yard announced that its “officers rushed to the scene at the National Gallery this morning after two Just Stop Oil protesters threw a substance on a painting and then hit a wall.”

Both people were arrested for criminal damages and aggravated trespassing,” police said on Twitter.

“Not even a can of soup”

Increasingly questioned for her political, economic and environmental decisions, the new British Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, appointed on September 6 as successor to the controversial Boris Johnsonannounced two days later the lifting of a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom.

In addition to allowing this controversial method of extracting fossil fuels, which was until now prohibited in the country, Truss also announced an increase in licenses for the extraction of oil and gas in the North Sea, among his measures to fight the energy crisis .

“Sunflowers” is the second most famous work by Van Gogh attacked by “Just Stop Oil”, two of whose activists hit the 1889 painting “Peach Trees in Bloom” at the Courtauld Gallery in London at the end of June.

“What is worth more, art or life?”, “Do you care more about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”, Launched one of the protesters on Friday.

In video footage, someone is heard yelling “oh my God” as soup drips down the frame onto the floor.

This latest action by the group takes place within the framework of a month of protests and demonstrations throughout the British capital.

“The cost of living crisis comes from fossil fuels, daily life has become unaffordable for millions of families who are cold and hungry, they can’t even afford a can of soup,” said Phoebe Plummer, an activist from 21 years cited in a group statement.

“At the same time,” “people are dying” from “fires and droughts caused by climate change,” he argued, and “we can’t afford new oil and gas projects.”