Two Just Stop Oil activists who threw soup at Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece Sunflowers in an "idiotic" stunt have been jailed.
Anna Holland, 22, and Phoebe Plummer, 23, were convicted of criminal damage after launching the contents of two cans of Heinz tomato soup at the world-famous painting as it hung in the National Gallery in London.
Staff rushed to remove Sunflowers from the wall and were relieved to find the artwork had escaped damage thanks to the protective glass screen. But soup dripped onto the 17th-century Italian frame, causing damage estimated to be worth £10,000.
Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced Plummer at Southwark District Court on Friday to two years and three months in prison and jailed Holland for 20 months. He called the stunt "stupidity" and concluded that they "wouldn't have cared" if Sunflowers had been damaged.
"The frame has been permanently damaged by your idiotic and criminal actions," he said.
"The painting itself, Sunflowers, could have been seriously damaged or even destroyed. Your position at trial was a blithe rejection of the risk associated with what you did."
He added that Van Gogh's work "belongs to the entire world and that his work is part of the shared cultural treasures of humanity.
"You simply had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers, and your arrogance in thinking otherwise deserves the strongest condemnation."
Judge Hehir was responsible in July for jailing other eco-activists for four and five years each over a plot to close large parts of the M25 in protest.
The sentences are believed to be the longest ever handed down in Britain in a case involving peaceful protest.
During the mitigation, Plummer gave a long speech, calling herself a "political prisoner" and comparing her actions to the campaigns of the suffragettes.
The judge told her: "This won't help you. There may be an audience you are playing for, but it really doesn't help."
And he added: "When you say to an English judge that we have political prisoners in this jurisdiction, when you think of people suffering tyranny in dungeons all over the world... what you are doing is what many people consider an offensive comparison would consider."
In his sentencing remarks, the judge went further, calling her comments "ridiculous, self-indulgent and insulting."
Holland and Plummer held their gallery protest on October 14, 2022, calling for an end to British oil drilling permits.
Posing as interested art lovers, they entered the gallery and proceeded to the room where Van Gogh's work is on display.
After hanging around the area and waiting for a spot to open for the Sunflowers, Holland and Plummer took off their jackets to reveal white T-shirts with the Just Stop Oil slogan on them.
They each took out a can of soup and threw it at the precious painting before gluing themselves to the gallery wall.
Prosecutors said the stunt was planned for maximum publicity, and that a supporter was present to record the incident as Plummer shouted, "What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice ?"
"Are you more concerned about protecting a painting, or protecting our planet and people?
"The cost of living crisis is part of the oil cost crisis."
There was an audible gasp when the soup was first thrown, before security was called, and the painting was protected from damage by a glass screen.
However, the court heard that £10,000 worth of damage was caused to the frame's paintwork as the soup dripped down.
Plummer and Holland argued that they knew the artwork was covered by a glass screen, and did not believe they would cause any damage.
But the judge replied: "None of the suspects are stupid. They knew that if you throw two cans of soup at a painting, soup will of course end up on the frame."
Artists and art historians signed an open letter calling on Judge Hehir to spare the activists a prison sentence. They suggested that the stunt itself was a work of art and that the soup splashes were reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's creations.
Plummer was also convicted for her part in a slow march protest near the A4 in west London, which brought traffic to a standstill.
She was convicted, along with Chiara Sarti, 25, and Daniel Hall, of 'interference with important national infrastructure' under the Public Order Act 2023, using provisions of a law designed by the last Conservative government to crack down on disruptive environmental protests.
Plummer, Sarti and Hall walked slowly along Earls Court Road, causing long traffic jams back to the Hammersmith viaduct.
Judge Hehir called them "a group of idiots" and said the location had been "carefully chosen to maximize disruption".
He said an ambulance carrying a patient needing critical care was held up, along with delivery personnel, buses and commuters.
"Anyone involved in a stunt like this is likely to be alarmed or upset or both," he said, calling the incident a "senseless, self-serving and self-serving violation of the law."
In a mitigating statement, Plummer said: "I made the choice to take the action I knew would likely lead to my arrest and prosecution.
"I have made choices because I believe that nonviolent civil resistance is the best, if not the only, tool that ordinary people have at their disposal to bring about the rapid social changes necessary to protest the life and suffering caused by to reduce the accelerating climate. emergency."
Judge Hehir said he accepts Plummer has deeply held beliefs, but added: "You have decided that your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes as and when you feel like it - they do not."
He sentenced Sarti and Hall to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of community service and imposed a criminal behavior order on both defendants.
Sarti, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, was ordered to undergo 15 days of rehabilitation sessions, and both defendants were ordered to pay £500 each towards the costs of their trial.
A team of Metropolitan Police officers have been deployed to the courthouse in an unprecedented security operation for the sentencing hearings, with barriers blocking traffic to the outside of the building and security fencing lining the sidewalks.
Anyone entering the courtroom must also undergo an additional security check, including a fingertip check.
Plummer, from Clapham, and Holland, from Newcastle, were found guilty of criminal damage at the trial.
Plummer, Sarti from Cambridge and Hall from Cowden in Kent were found guilty by a jury of disrupting the use or operation of key national infrastructure.
The court heard Plummer will appeal her slow conviction but does not intend to challenge her conviction for the painting stunt.
She received two years in prison for the Van Gogh attack and another three months for the slow march.
