Three Just Stop Oil activists charged after soup thrown at Van Gogh paintings
Three protesters have been charged with criminal damage and will appear in court after soup was thrown at two Vincent van Gogh paintings on Friday.
Just Stop Oil activists poured soup over two paintings in the National Gallery, London, just hours after other members of the group were jailed for damaging the gold frame of the artist’s Sunflowers painting.
Stephen Simpson, 61, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, Phillipa Green, 24, of Penryn, Cornwall, and Mary Somerville, 77, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, will all appear at Westminster magistrates court on Monday, the Metropolitan police said.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Just Stop Oil said: “BREAKING: 2 VAN GOGH PAINTINGS SOUPED HOURS AFTER PHOEBE AND ANNA SENTENCED.
“3 Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over 2 of Van Gogh(‘s) paintings in the ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery”.
The National Gallery said in a statement on Friday that the three protesters had been arrested and the paintings were unharmed during the incident.
A statement said: “At just after 2.30pm this afternoon, three people entered room six of the National Gallery Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition.
“They appeared to throw a soup-like substance over two works – Sunflowers (1888, National Gallery, London) and Sunflowers (1889, Philadelphia Museum of Art). Police were called and three people have been arrested.
“The paintings were removed from display and examined by a conservator and are unharmed. We are aiming to reopen the exhibition as soon as possible.”
The protest came almost exactly an hour after Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison for causing an estimated £10,000 of damage to the frame of Sunflowers 1888. Her co-defendant, Anna Holland, 22, received 20 months for the same offence.
