Two Van Gogh Paintings souped at the National Gallery as Just Stop Oil Supporters sentenced

Just Stop Oil is demanding that governments work together to establish a fossil fuel treaty, to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. 

At around 2:30pm, three supporters of Just Stop Oil entered the Van Gogh ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery and proceeded to throw Heinz vegetable soup over two Van Gogh masterpieces:  ‘Sunflowers’ 1889 and ‘Sunflowers’ 1888. The latter was splashed with soup by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland in 2022.

Taking off jackets they revealed Just Stop Oil t-shirts and spoke to the assembled crowds. Referring to the 25 Just stop Oil supporters now in prison, Phil Green announced: ” Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history.”

Subsequently Ludi Simpson said: “We will be held accountable for our actions today, and we will face the full force of the law. When will the fossil fuel executives and the politicians they’ve bought be held accountable for the criminal damage that they are imposing on every living thing?”

One of those taking action today is Phil Green, 24, a community worker from Cornwall who said:

“Whilst deadly flooding, food shortages and extreme heat wreak havoc around the world, the state is choosing to focus energy on prosecuting ordinary people with the harshest sentences. Future generations will see those who stood up against suffering, genocide and greed as heroes and our reckless governments as the real criminals.”

Also taking action today is Ludi Simpson, 71, a retired Professor from Bradford, who said

“My action is from the heart and the head. I know politicians can do the right thing if they listen to the facts, but their inaction is burning up our lives. Is it too much to ask for a safe future? Soup on sunflowers is a splash of protest. The treasured pictures remain unharmed.  What is harming our future is the criminal greed of the fossil fuel economy. Our government can choose to end it now.”

Mary Patricia Somerville, 77, a grandmother from Bradford who was also taking action today said:

“I am more and more frightened that we’re running out of time to save humanity from extinction. We desperately need an international Fossil Fuel Treaty to prevent this from happening in the lifetime of my grandchildren.  Harvey, aged 8, told me his plans for when he grows up. ‘I’d like to write musicals,’ he said,  ‘but with climate change  I might be dead.’ “

The action comes at the end of a week in which the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called on governments to sign a Fossil Fuel Treaty and after unprecedented rainfall and flooding across the UK left motorists stranded, motorways closed and severe disruption on the railways. 66 flood warnings remain in place. 

Today’s action occurred immediately after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were sentenced to two years and 20 months respectively for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ in October 2022.

Simultaneously, solidarity actions against the British government’s repression of peaceful climate action took place across three continents in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Canada. In Berlin, people gathered outside British embassies to support Phoebe and Anna—the “soup throwers”. Supporters poured soup on the pavements and held placards reading “Solidarity with the Soup Throwers” and “Shame on UK Government,” highlighting widespread opposition to the extreme repression of peaceful climate action in Britain. 

Just Stop Oil is working with an international network of groups to demand our governments establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030, as well as supporting and financing other countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition. This can be accomplished by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and seeking a negotiating mandate to establish the treaty.