JSO pair told to expect jail over soup on painting

Just Stop Oil/Reuters

Two Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists who threw tinned soup over Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers have been found guilty of criminal damage.

Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both 22, launched two tins of tomato soup on to the painting at the National Gallery in central London, later gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.

The gallery previously said the gold-coloured frame of the glass-covered painting was damaged in the October 2022 attack.

Plummer, of Clapham in south-west London, and Holland, of Newcastle, were convicted at Southwark Crown Court and will be sentenced on 27 September.

A number of JSO supporters were present in the courtroom as the verdict was delivered.

Plummer's and Holland's bail conditions stipulate that they must not carry glue, paint or any adhesive substance in a public place, and must not visit any galleries or museums.

Plummer said in front of the painting in 2022: "What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?

"Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people? The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost-of-oil crisis."

The protesters were later seen being bundled into a police van at the back entrance of the gallery.

The painting, which has been in the National Gallery's collection for 100 years, shows 15 sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.

The artwork belongs to series of four extraordinary sunflower still lifes that Van Gogh created in less than a week during the summer of 1888 in Arles in the south of France, when a cold northerly wind prevented him from working outdoors.

The priceless piece was the second from the National Gallery to be targeted by JSO in 2022, with two activists gluing themselves to John Constable's The Hay Wain in July.

Eben Lazarus and Hannah Hunt were found guilty of causing criminal damage in December 2022.