Eco-activists throw soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers in London
A handout picture from the Just Stop Oil climate campaign group shows activists with their hands glued to the wall under Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers after throwing tomato soup on the painting at the National Gallery in central London on Oct 14, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Just Stop Oil handout)
London's Metropolitan Police said that its officers arrested two protesters from the Just Stop Oil group for criminal damage and aggravated trespass after they "threw a substance over a painting" at the gallery on Trafalgar Square.
Two protesters wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Just Stop Oil" lobbed cans of soup at the iconic painting, a video posted on Twitter by the Guardian newspaper's environment correspondent Damien Gayle and retweeted by the eco-activism group showed.
After gluing themselves to the wall, one of the activists shouts: "What is worth more, art or life?"
"Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?" she asks.
In the video, someone can be heard yelling "oh my god" as the soup hits the canvas, and another person shouts "security?" while soup drips from the frame onto the floor.
Just Stop Oil said in a statement that its activists threw two cans of Heinz tomato soup over the painting at 11am (10am GMT) to demand that the United Kingdom government halt all new oil and gas projects.
It said that the painting had an estimated value of US$84.2 million.
It was not immediately clear whether the painting was protected by glass.
