Philly’s Van Gogh painting safe after climate activists throw tomato soup on it in London
The Philadelphia Museum of Art lent its “Sunflowers” to be displayed with another that is part of the permanent collection at London’s National Gallery.
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A Vincent Van Gogh “Sunflowers” painting on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art was targeted with what appeared to be tomato soup by climate activists in London on Friday, but the painting was not damaged thanks to protective glass.
The Associated Press reported that three activists from the Just Stop Oil environmental group poured soup on the Philadelphia “Sunflowers” and another Van Gogh “Sunflowers” that is part of the permanent collection at London’s National Gallery.
Philadelphia’s painting was lent to the National Gallery for an exhibition that began this month and will last until Jan.19. It is the first time the two “Sunflowers” paintings have been together since early 1889, when they were in the artist’s studio in France, the National Gallery said on its website.
The vandalism on Friday occurred on the same day that two other activists were sentenced over a similar attack two years ago at the London museum, the Associated Press reported.
The three activists who participated on Friday were arrested while the paintings were removed, examined, and then returned to their location.
Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced on Friday to two years in jail while Anna Holland, 22, received a 20-month sentence for their October 2022 attack on a “Sunflowers” painting, the Associated Press reported.
The women threw tomato soup at the artwork, then knelt down in front of it and glued their hands to the wall beneath it. They were found guilty of criminal damage by a jury in July.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Art Museum issued a statement Friday night saying its “Sunflowers” painting “is unharmed.”
The Philadelphia “Sunflowers” was left initially with friends of Van Gogh in Arles in the south of France, where the Dutch master made the paintings, the National Gallery said on its website. It was bought in 1935 by Carroll Tyson of Chestnut Hill, then finally acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1963.
The London “Sunflowers” was sent to Van Gogh’s brother Theo in May 1889 and stayed in the family until the National Gallery bought it in 1924.