Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Soup thrown on masterpiece
TWO ‘Just Stop Oil’ supporters have been arrested after throwing tinned soup at one of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous paintings to protest against fossil fuels.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work Sunflowers shortly after 11am yesterday, before kneeling down in front of the painting and appearing to glue their hands to the wall beneath it. Tomato soup covered the image, which is covered by glass, as well as parts of the frame.
Visitors were then shortly escorted out by security, who then shut the doors to room 43 of the gallery where the painting hangs.
One of the activists, 21-year-old Phoebe Plummer from London, said in front of the painting: “What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?”
The protesters were later seen being put into a police van at the back entrance of the gallery.