Two climate loons from the activist group ‘Just Stop Oil’ threw tomato soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s famous 1888 painting of Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
Phoebe Plummer, 21, from London, and Anna Holland, 20, from Newcastle dumped two cans of Heinz tomato soup all over an $80.99 million painting, which is protected by glass.
Only the frame suffered damage from the incident.
Damien Gayle, a correspondent for the Guardian, captured the whole incident on film.
Witnesses couldn’t believe what they saw.
WATCH:
Activists with @JustStop_Oil have thrown tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the national Gallery and glued themselves to the wall. pic.twitter.com/M8YP1LPTOU
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) October 14, 2022
So, this is what stops oil?
Who knew?
I am glad they managed to stop oil once and for all with this stunt. Well done!
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 14, 2022
“What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?” said Phoebe Plummer.
“The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis. Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup,” she added.
“What is worth more, art or life? … are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”@JustStop_Oil’s activists explain their action pic.twitter.com/LjvpQrhiDp
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) October 14, 2022
“The room was cleared of visitors and police were called,” the National Gallery stated. “Officers are now on the scene.”
“There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed. Two people have been arrested.”
Statement from the National Gallery pic.twitter.com/DuZhTbAvbH
— National Gallery (@NationalGallery) October 14, 2022
From The Guardian:
Activists from Just Stop Oil have thrown tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
There were gasps, roars and a shout of “Oh my gosh!” in room 43 of the gallery as two young supporters of the climate protest group threw the liquid over the painting, which is protected by glass, just after 11am.
They removed jackets to reveal Just Stop Oil T-shirts before gluing themselves to the wall beneath the artwork, which is one of the gallery’s most important treasures.
CNBC added:
According to the London Metropolitan Police, specialists removed the two women from the wall and they have been taken into custody after being arrested for “criminal damage and aggravated trespass.”
A spokesperson for the National Gallery confirmed that there was no damage to the painting, which has an estimated value of £72.5 million ($80.99 million).
“There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed,” they told CNBC. The painting was covered by glass.
Just Stop Oil has been protesting in the U.K.’s capital for the past two weeks. In a press release, the group said its actions were “in response to the government’s inaction on both the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis.”
The group also said that it is demanding that the U.K. government put an end to all new oil and gas projects in the country.
Back in June, a pair of Green activists glued themselves on the frame of a Vincent Van Gogh painting in London.
The two people belong to the same group, Just Stop Oil.
“Sorry everyone, we didn’t want to do this,” they told the gallery audience.
A pair of environmental protesters in #Britain on Thursday glued themselves to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting on display at a London art gallery. pic.twitter.com/7veTNAfQt6
— KUWAIT TIMES (@kuwaittimesnews) June 30, 2022
Oil is stopped forever!
So bold.
So brave.
Infowars explained the reality behind disillusioning young minds with the fake climate change narrative:
Given that the entire world economy relies on oil for energy – and oil is used for thousands of products and heavy machinery – this anti-oil movement would result in the breakdown of civilization to a neo-feudalism state, which, not surprisingly, is the actual goal of the Great Reset: to make the population poorer and less able to travel freely.
“Our entire prosperity, economic progress and economic system, and the whole communication system which allows us to visit each other in a completely different way than we did before, for example, are based on an economy with access to very efficient energy sources,” an economist once wrote for the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
“If oil disappeared tomorrow, that’s what would go – a society completely different from what it was in 1850 when we seriously began to exploit hydrocarbons. We’ve got so used to this that we don’t even think about it.”
In short, oil isn’t just used for travel, but it’s also used as a more efficient alternative to human labor, given all the heavy machinery running on oil that’s far more efficient than thousands of laborers.
Not to mention the thousands of products that are made using oil, such as medical equipment.
“Much of the medical equipment used today, many of which are life-saving devices, is made from oil,” writes the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers. “Not only are heart valves and artificial limbs made from petroleum, but also much of the cleaning and safety products medical personnel use.”
“Aspirins and other pharmaceuticals also contain petroleum.”
That’s not to say there isn’t an argument for the safe and effective use of oil, but to ban oil outright would simply further empower the world’s elite at the expense of the rest of the population, given how oil has led to the creation of a vibrant middle class.
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