Tomato soup acted 'like paint stripper' in Just Stop Oil Van Gogh protest, court hears
23 July 2024, 18:30 | Updated: 23 July 2024, 18:31
Tomato soup acted “like paint stripper” when it was hurled at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in a Just Stop Oil protest, a court heard today.
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Just Stop Oil's Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer are accused of throwing two cans of soup at the legendary painting while it was on display in London’s National Gallery.
While the painting itself was protected by a glass screen, jurors were told the soup damaged the 17th-century Italian frame holding it.
Isabella Kocum, who specialises in frame conservation, told the court she was involved in assessing damage and removing the soup from the painting.
“I was shocked and dismayed as to the extent of the corrosion the tomato soup was causing to such an exquisite and antique frame,” she said.
“Even once the majority of the soup had been removed, I was alarmed to see the remainder was still acting like a paint stripper in front of my eyes.”
Holland and Plummer deny any criminal damage and reject claims the frame was harmed during their protest.
The pair are accused of attending the National Gallery on October 14, 2022 dressed as normal visitors.
They allegedly waited for a space to appear around Van Gogh’s painting before removing their jackets to reveal “Just Stop Oil” t-shirts, and emptying two tins of soup on the artwork.
They are then alleged to have glued their hands to the walls next to the painting.
“I remain amazed at how corrosive the soup was to the frame,” Ms Kocum continued.
Judge Christopher Hehir, who recently sentenced five other eco-protesters to time in jail, is presiding over the case.
He told jurors at Southwark crown court today that evidence related to climate change in this will be “constricted.”
“The position in law is that the motivation of either defendant and their convictions about climate change – however sincerely held – are not a defence to the allegation they face,” he said.
“It is not a defence to say I did it in pursuit of my sincerely held belief.”
This comes after five Just Stop Oil members - including one of its co-founders - were jailed for between four and five years for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25.
They made plans for protestors to climb onto overhead gantries for four days in November 2022.
Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, agreed to cause disruption to traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four successive days in November 2022.
Hallam - who also co-founded Extinction Rebellion - was sentenced to five years' imprisonment while the other four defendants were each handed four years' imprisonment.
The environmental group have described the sentences as a "obscene perversion of justice".
Prosecutors alleged the protests, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.
They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 "compromised" for more than 120 hours.
A police officer suffered concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9 2022, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said at the sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
