By Vivian Pham, Staff Writer
On October 14 at the Nation Gallery in London, two environmental activists were reported to throw canned soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. After the scandalous act, both young activists took off their jackets, revealed to be members of the Just Stop Oil organization. They then glued themselves to the wall beneath the painting, and proceeded to give out a speech about environmental awareness.
“What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?” said one of the activists, Phoebe Plummer, from London. Accompanied with her was Anna Holland, from Newcastle.
The two activists were arrested shortly after. Fortunately, according to the gallery, the painting was confirmed to remain unharmed, although minor damage was detected on the external frame.
What exactly is Just Stop Oil? And what is its purpose? On their official website, Just Stop Oil claimed to be “a coalition of groups working together to ensure that the government commits to ending all new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.” This group of environmental activists aimed to put a stop to global warming and prevent the UK government from fossil fuel production. Even though the message they tried to deliver is reasonable and aligns with most environmental activist groups, their way of delivering is usually controversial, which receives negative responses from the public and mass media. Prior to the scandalous soup throwing, the group staged a sit-down protest around London, infuriating drivers and commuters for disrupting traffic during rush hours. Subsequently, the scandalous act at the National Gallery proved to escalate its tactics.
One of the spokespersons of Just Stop Oil, Alex de Koning, spoke with several reporters outside of the National Gallery shortly after the soup throwing incident, “…this is not The X Factor. We are not trying to make friends here, we are trying to make change, and unfortunately this is the way that change happens.”
Additionally, Just Stop Oil publicly claimed to receive funding from Climate Emergency Fund (CEF) – a U.S. network set up in 2019 to fund climate activism. Ironically, CEF turned out to be part-funded by Aileen Getty, a U.S. philanthropist whose grandfather was the founder of Getty Oil petroleum company, J. Paul Getty. Needless to say, it is not always the case that the heirs of these petroleum multimillion dollar fortunes have no intention to overcome the damage caused by their predecessors. CEF is said to financially contribute for numerous environmental activist organizations. Nevertheless, critics fear that the elites might utilize these activist groups for tax evasion or tax-related purposes.