UK court hands prison terms to climate activists who threw soup on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’
Supporters of Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland from Just Stop Oil protest in front of Southwark Crown Court on September 27
By Billy Stockwell, CNN
(CNN) — Two climate activists in their early 20s were sentenced to prison by a London court Friday for throwing soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting during a protest against fossil fuels.
Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, from the protest group Just Stop Oil were imprisoned for two years, and 20 months, respectively, according to PA Media.
These are the latest in a string of prison sentences handed to climate activists in the UK for engaging in disruptive protests against the use of fossil fuels. Two relatively new, controversial laws have boosted the powers of police and courts to crack down on protests that are disruptive, even when they are peaceful.
The sentences appeared to do little to deter Just Stop Oil: Hours after they were handed down, three more Just Stop Oil activists threw soup over two other Van Gogh paintings of sunflowers in the Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery, the same venue the 2022 protests was staged, according to the group.
The two activists sentenced Friday were found guilty of criminal damage offenses for pouring the contents of two tins of tomato soup over the famous painting in October 2022, causing damage to the artwork’s gold-colored frame.
They also glued themselves to the wall beneath the painting, at the National Gallery in London.
“Sunflowers” — worth more than $84 million — was preserved under protective glass but the protesters were accused of causing £10,000 (over $13,000) worth of damage to its golden frame.
Judge Christopher Hehir admonished Plummer and Holland in court Friday, saying the “cultural treasure” could have been “seriously damaged or even destroyed” by their actions.
“Soup might have seeped through the glass. You couldn’t have cared less if the painting was damaged or not,” he said in court. “You had no right to do what you did to ‘Sunflowers.’”
The judge handed Plummer an additional three-month sentence for her part in a “slow march,” a 2023 protest that caused traffic delays in west London.
“You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel
like it. You do not,” the judge said.
Hehir is the same judge who recently handed yearslong prison terms to five climate activists for their roles in disruptive protests. All were from Just Stop Oil or its allied group, Extinction Rebellion.
Plummer, representing herself, told the court: “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.”
The UK government has been criticized for its laws designed to crack down on disruptive protest by rights groups and the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michael Forst, who said the laws were being enforced in “punitive and repressive” ways.
CNN’s Kara Fox contributed to this report.
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