Three Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at two of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings in London’s National Gallery on Friday, just hours after two other members of the protest group were jailed for doing the same thing in 2022.
The activists threw tomato soup at the Sunflowers owned by the London Gallery – the painting targeted two years ago – and another from the series that is on loan from Philadelphia Museum of Art for a temporary exhibition.
The National Gallery said three people had been arrested and the paintings were unharmed.
The stunt came just a few hours after Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, were sentenced for throwing tins of tomato soup on the London-based artwork in October 2022, before gluing themselves to the wall below the painting.
The soup caused up to £10,000 (US$13,385) worth of damage to the frame in 2022, prosecutors said, though the painting – which was behind a protective screen – was unharmed and went back on display later the same day.
