Three individuals targeted National Gallery paintings an hour after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed for similar attack in 2022

Climate activists have thrown tomato soup over two Sunflowers paintings by Vincent van Gogh, just an hour after two others were jailed for a similar protest action in 2022.

Three supporters of Just Stop Oil walked into the National Gallery in London, where an exhibition of Van Gogh’s collected works is on display, at 2.30pm on Friday afternoon, and threw Heinz soup over Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888.

The latter was the same work targeted by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland in 2022. That pair are now among 25 supporters of Just Stop Oil in jail for climate protests.

  • Wogi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    3 months ago

    It’s to get cameras thrust in their face so they ask when oil executives will face consequences.

    “Is destroying art worse than destroying the whole planet???”

    It’s an idiotic form of protest, it accomplishes nothing but turning the public against you, and forever associating your cause with petty vandalism.

    • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      “Is destroying art worse than destroying the whole planet???”

      It’s a fair question.

      Everyone cares so much about protecting this painting. Why don’t they care as much about protecting the planet? (And the painting isn’t even in any real danger. It’s behind glass.)

      The vandalism is practically thought-provoking performance art in itself. It’s probably one of the best pieces in the gallery.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        3 months ago

        The vandalism is practically thought-provoking performance art in itself. It’s probably one of the best pieces in the gallery.

        Jesus fucking Christ.

    • Rimu@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      3 months ago

      …and yet, here we are talking about climate change. If they’d instead organized a protest of 10,000 people marching for hours it wouldn’t have been international news and we wouldn’t be talking about climate change.

    • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      And also everything they do is wrong because all protests are secretly worse than the things being protested.

      Let the planet die like all the reasonable people.

      • sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        I don’t know how many times I need to say this. THAT IS ASSAULT. In most countries that is years of prison. Soup on a Plexiglas barrier is, at most, a few days for disturbing the peace and vandalizing protective equipment. What doesn’t make sense about this to you?

        • ravhall@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Because soup on plexiglass doesn’t save humanity?

          I think some soup on a person is a small price to pay. Frankly, I feel beheading a few million rich people and their spawn is also a SMALL PRICE for eliminating the problem with humanity.

          But let’s start with the soup.

          What doesn’t make sense about this to you?

          • sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            I mean if that’s your opinion, I’m right there with you. It’s a drastic solution, but it might work! Problem is, who are you going to get who’s okay with a serious crime and a prison sentence on their record? It doesn’t matter what action they actually do as long as people talk about it. If the news got all up in arms about them putting up posters on their local community board, then I’d suggest that they do that.

            I’m going to keep saying “what doesn’t make sense about this to you?” because I feel you’re being wilfully obtuse.

            • ravhall@discuss.online
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 months ago

              Oh, you can’t get anyone to do it. Because even then change would probably never happen.

              Humanity is over, I’m down for whatever ends it the fastest and lets the earth wipe us from existence.

              Long live Earth.