Members of a radical environmental movement group that has caused controversy with tactics that attract public attention by damaging world-class cultural heritage have once again poured soup on the famous painting left by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

According to the BBC on the 27th (local time), orange soup was sprinkled on two ‘Sunflower’ oil paintings by Van Gogh in 1888 and 1889 at the National Gallery in London.

The three activists from the environmental group ‘Just Stop Oil (JSO)’ who committed this act were arrested on the spot.

Members of this group also performed a performance in October 2022, pouring tomato soup on Van Gogh’s work on display at the National Gallery.

Accordingly, the BBC pointed out that although the British court handed down harsh punishments of two years in prison and 20 months in prison, respectively, to the two activists who carried out the performance at the time last month, this group immediately committed the same crime.

A video posted by JSO on the social media

They referred to fellow imprisoned activists as ‘prisoners of conscience’ and argued that “future generations will think that these prisoners of conscience are on the right side of history.”

The National Gallery announced that it plans to retrieve and inspect the famous paintings that were sprayed with soup to determine whether they have been damaged.

(Photo = Yonhap News)

Reporter Kim Hyeon-gyeong khkkim@wowtv.co.kr