Two climate activists have been jailed the U.K. for dousing Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting soup. The pair of protestors are Just Stop Oil (JSO), an environmental group focused highlighting the issue climate change caused fossil fuels. One of the activists received a sentence of two years prison. The other will serve 20 months. In October 2022, the protestors threw two cans tomato soup over Van Gogh's priceless 1888 painting at London's National Gallery. They then knelt beneath the iconic work art and glued their hands to the wall. The soup did not harm the painting, but it did over $13,000 damage to the picture frame.
Presiding judge Christopher Hehir called the Van Gogh painting a "cultural treasure" that could have been "seriously damaged or even destroyed" the attack. The judge told the activists: "You couldn't have cared less if the painting was damaged or not. You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers. You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not." He added: "Soup might have seeped the glass." In their defence, the protestors said that prior to throwing the soup, they checked to see if the painting was protected the glass. Museum staff worried the soup could have dripped the protective glass.
