A group of climate change protesters wanted their message to stick to the public. And they did take sticking quite literally.
At 11 am last Friday, two members of the Just Stop Oil campaign group took people by surprise when they threw two cans of Heinz tomato soup over the world famous “Sunflowers” painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The painting, located in London’s National Gallery, remained unharmed. Fortunately, the painting has a glass covering, and only the frame received minor damage.
“Sunflowers” was created between 1888 and 1889 and was said to be one of the six remaining sunflower works by the artist.
Not content with the soup act, they proceeded to glue themselves to the wall and asked museum goers if they are “more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people?”
The two women protesters were unglued from the wall and were taken to the central London police station.
The Just Stop Oil group has been fighting against fossil fuel extraction and this was not the first shocking act that they did. Previously, their members also glued themselves to the frames of the “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci displayed at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and the “The Hay Wain” by John Constable, which is also displayed in the National Gallery.
One of the activist group’s spokespeople, Mel Carrington, shared that the painting was chosen since it was sure to draw attention to their actions. The soup symbolized the people of Britain’s struggle to afford basic goods due to the increase in living costs, and there are people who do not have the resources to heat even just a can of soup. She also said that the group will be doing more activities like this one.