Van Gogh paintings vandalized at a London gallery after 2 activists were sentenced in similar attack

Climate activists vandalize Van Gogh paintings in London gallery, protesting oil projects, leading to arrests and sentencing.

A pair of paintings by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh at London’s National Gallery were vandalized Friday (September 27, 2024) when a group of climate activists splattered what appeared to be tomato soup on them, shortly after two other activists were sentenced over a similar attack two years ago.

The paintings from Van Gogh's “Sunflowers” series, which the artist painted in Arles in the south of France, were not damaged thanks to protective glass coverings. The gallery identified the two as its own Sunflowers (1888) and Sunflowers (1889) on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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“The three activists from the Just Stop Oil environmental group involved in the attack were arrested while the paintings were removed, examined, and then returned to their location. The exhibition reopened later Friday,” the gallery said.

The group posted a video of the attack on social media, showing three people pouring soup over the paintings. The action was apparently in protests against the sentencing earlier Friday of two other activists from the group, Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22.

Plummer was sentenced to two years while Holland received a 20-month sentence for their October 2022 attack on a “Sunflowers” painting. The two women threw tins of tomato soup at the artwork, then knelt down in front of it and glued their hands to the wall beneath it. They were found guilty of criminal damage by a jury in July.

In both attacks — in 2022 and on Friday — the activists wore T-shirts supporting Just Stop Oil. The group has been pushing the British government to halt new oil and gas projects and has staged high-profile stunts, including at major sporting events and on Britain's transport networks.