Two Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested after throwing tinned soup at one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings to protest against fossil fuels.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz Tomato soup over the 1888 work Sunflowers shortly after 11am on Friday, before kneeling down in front of the painting and appearing to glue their hands to the wall beneath it.
Tomato soup covered the image, which is covered by glass, as well as parts of the golden frame.
Visitors were then shortly escorted out by security, who then shut the doors to room 43 of the gallery where the painting hangs.
One of the activists, 21-year-old Phoebe Plummer from London, said in front of the painting: “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 put into a police van at the back entrance of the gallery.
The Metropolitan Police said: “Officers were rapidly on scene at the National Gallery this morning after two Just Stop Oil protesters threw a substance over a painting and then glued themselves to a wall. Both have been arrested 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.”
Sunflowers is the second, more famous, Van Gogh painting to be targeted by the group, with two climate activists glueing themselves to his 1889 Peach Trees in Blossom, exhibited at the Courtauld Gallery, at the end of June.
Painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, Van Gogh’s painting shows fifteen sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.
The work is also the second from the National Gallery to be selected as a target for protest action by Just Stop Oil, with two supporters glueing themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain on July 4.
They had attached their own “reimagined version” to the portrait, before glueing themselves to the frame.
Representatives from the organisation have also targeted a landscape painting by Horatio McCulloch, My Heart’s In The Highlands, in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, as well as a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Summer in London’s Royal Academy.
Thursday marked the 14th day of “continuous disruption” by the environmental protest group, which has also seen protesters block several key roads in the capital over the course of the fortnight.
The National Gallery said: “At just after 11am this morning two people entered Room 43 of the National Gallery.
“The pair appeared to glue themselves to the wall adjacent to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888). They also threw a red substance – what appears to be tomato soup – over the painting.
“The room was cleared of visitors and police were called. Officers are now on the scene.
“There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.”
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