Two Just Stop Oil activists are facing jail after being found guilty on Thursday of criminal damage for throwing soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Judge Christopher Hehir said Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, both 22, “came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world” after a jury convicted the pair at Southwark Crown Court in London.
Prosecutors said the activists caused as much as £10,000 worth of damage to the painting’s frame, when they doused it with soup at London’s National Gallery in 2022.
The jury took just three hours to return the two guilty verdicts.
After the verdicts were read out, Judge Hehir told Holland and Plummer that gallery staff had “frantically” inspected the painting for damage after the incident.
“They were worried the soup may have dripped through by condensation,” he said.
Clad in Just Stop Oil T-shirts, Holland and Plummer flung two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the Dutch artist’s most famous work before kneeling in front it and gluing themselves to the wall on which it hung.
Soup covered the image, which is protected by glass, as well as parts of the gold-coloured frame.
Visitors were escorted out by security, who then shut the doors to the room where the painting hangs.
The protesters were later seen being bundled into a police van at the back entrance of the gallery.
Plummer and Holland will be released on bail until they are sentenced on Sept. 27 at the same court.
Judge Hehir warned the activists to arrive in court “prepared in practical and emotional terms to go to prison on that date.”
The offence of criminal damage carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
Plummer and Holland’s bail conditions stipulate that they must not carry glue, paint, or any adhesive substance in a public, and must not visit any galleries or museums.
A lawyer for Holland said she is now considering whether or not to appeal.
A number of Just Stop Oil supporters were present in the court room as the verdict was read out.
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was painted in Arles in the south of France, during the summer of 1888. It depicts 15 sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.
