UK: Climate protesters throw soup on Van Gogh’s sunflowers

Climate protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London on Friday in protest of fossil fuel extraction, but they did no harm to the glass-covered panel.

The Just Stop Oil group, which wants the British government to stop new oil and gas projects, said activists threw two cans of tomato soup over the oil painting, one of the Dutch artist’s most famous works. The two protesters also stuck themselves to the gallery wall.

Soup was splattered on the glass covering the painting and its gilded frame. “There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is not damaged,” the gallery said. It was cleaned up and returned to its place in the gallery on Friday afternoon.

The work is one of several copies of “Sunflowers” painted by Van Gogh in the late 1880s.

The Metropolitan Police in London said officers had arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage and gross trespassing.

“It has now been detached by specialist officers and has been taken into custody at a central London police station,” the force said in a statement.

A group of protesters from the same group later gathered at police headquarters and sprayed yellow paint on the “New Scotland Yard” sign in front of it. And many of them stuck themselves on the road, blocking traffic. Police said 24 people were arrested.

Just Stop Oil has drawn attention and criticism for targeting artworks in museums. In July, Just Stop Oil activists framed an early version of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” at the Royal Academy of Art in London, and John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” at the National Gallery.

Activists have also closed bridges and intersections across London during the two weeks of protests.

The protesters were part of the “new radical wing” of the environmental movement that University of Maryland sociologist Dana Fisher calls “creators”.

“These tactics are specifically geared toward gaining media attention,” said Fisher, who studies activists. She said they apparently targeted a painting with a cover glass to cause minimal damage, but it gets more attention than the former activists who glued themselves to the art. She said throwing out tomato soup was an “escalation of the tactic.”

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said he worries that vandalism “is alienating many of the people we need to bring into the fold. People who are natural allies in the climate battle but would draw negative associations with climate advocacy and activism from such actions.”

The wave of demonstrations comes as the British government opens a new licensing round for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, despite criticism from environmentalists and scientists who say the move undermines the country’s commitment to combating climate change.