By Lawson Murphy
Last Friday at about 11:00 A.M. in London two protestors attempted to damage Vincent Van Gogh’s renowned sunflower painting. The renowned painting has been undamaged for years before this incident.
The two protestors used tomato soup to vandalize the painting; in previous incidents before this the group known as Just Stop Oil has been attacking paintings from other artists in different museums for publicity. They’ve glued themselves to the other paintings previously but this is the first time they used tomato soup as a way to vandalize the painting.
The damage done to the painting was not great but it was still an attempt to hurt it. The actual painting itself was left unharmed because of the glass cover over it but the original frame that held the painting was damaged by the soup.
The reasoning for the vandalism was to protest the cost for food and fuel bills in the country. Recently the costs for food and fuel have skyrocketed so there is solid ground on which they protest. However the reasoning why they chose Van Gogh’s painting is not yet known. He as a person was not a bad figure and was relatively unproblematic so the reasoning for his painting as one that showed the beauty of nature is particularly confusing.
The two protesters have been arrested on two accounts of vandalism and trespassing and are awaiting their punishments. Just Stop Oil’s leader has announced that the painting was the target and that there will be more pieces of art that will be targeted by the group in the coming months.
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