Two members of the environmental group ‘Just Stop the Oil’ he threw tomato soup on the table this friday ‘Sunflowers’ Vincent van Gogh on London National Galleryone of five versions exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, as can be seen in several videos posted on social networks.
Police reported in a tweet that two activists from the Just Stop Oil organization threw a substance on the painting and “then hit the wall”. Both were arrested on criminal damage and aggravated trespassing charges.“.
Wearing T-shirts bearing that organization’s name, protesters threw two cans of tomato soup from the famous Heinz brand onto the 1888 painting, and then knelt before the painting. stick your hands on the wall below.
Tomato soup was thrown on the glass-covered painting, and it stained some parts of the painting’s gilded frame.
After the incident, the museum room was closed for security reasons and visitors were evacuated.
One of the activists was determined to be from London. Phoebe Plumper21 shouted in front of the famous painting: Which is more valuable, art or life? Is it more valuable than food? Is it more valuable than justice?
“What interests us more is the preservation of a painting or the protection of our planet and people? The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of the oil crisis,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police announced that “agents arrived quickly on the scene at the National Gallery” and later accused the two activists of malicious damage and gross trespassing.
The “Sunflowers” version, one of five models made by Van Gogh and exhibited at the National Gallery in London, was painted in Arles, in the south of France, in August 1888. The work shows fifteen sunflowers standing in a yellow pot in a pot. background of the same color.