Two activists from campaign group Just Stop Oil were arrested Friday after throwing tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh's famous "Sunflowers" painting, which hangs in the National Gallery in London.
The protesters then glued themselves to the wall next to the painting.
"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? 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," one activist said, as video footage of the event shows.
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."
"JUST STOP OIL SUPPORTERS CHOOSE LIFE OVER ART," read a Tweet from the group. "Human creativity and brilliance is on show in this gallery, yet our heritage is being destroyed by our Government's failure to act on the climate and cost of living crisis."
"The 100 proposed oil and gas licences will destroy all of our culture, along with human civilisation as we know it," the message continued. "Why are we protecting these paintings when we are not protecting the millions of lives that will be lost due to climate and societal collapse?"
"Sunflowers" was painted by Van Gogh in the late 1880s and is one of six surviving images of sunflowers painted by the famous artist, per the New York Times.
After throwing the soup at the painting, both activists squeezed glue onto one of their hands and stuck it on a wall.
"What is worth more, art or life?" one of the activists said in a video posted online. "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?"
Activists around the glove have been gluing themselves to famous artworks to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change.
On Oct. 9, two climate change protestors from the group Extinction Rebellion glued their hands to the protective layer covering Pablo Picasso's "Massacre en Corée" (Massacre in Korea). In July, Just Stop Oil protestors glued themselves to a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper at London's Royal Academy of Arts.
In 2019, a series of studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience claimed that temperature rises around the planet over the last 150 years are part of a normal cycle in nature and that there was "no doubt" humans are playing a part in climate change.
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