The National Gallery is banning visitors from carrying liquids following a spate of attacks on masterpieces.
The top London attraction has announced that no liquids will be allowed, except for baby formula, expressed milk and prescription medicines, from 10am on Friday, October 18.
In a statement issued on Thursday, a National Gallery spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, we have now reached a point where we have been forced to act to protect our visitors, staff and collection.
“Since July 2022, the National Gallery alone has been the victim of five separate attacks on iconic paintings such as Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, John Constable's The Hay Wain and Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.
“Such attacks have caused physical damage to the artworks, distress to visitors and staff alike, and disruption to our mission to ensure great art is available for everyone, everywhere to enjoy.
“Two of these attacks have happened in the last two weeks, and that is why we have taken the difficult and unfortunate decision to change the way we operate for the foreseeable future.
“We urge all visitors to bring minimal items with them including no large bags. All doors into the Gallery have walk-through metal detectors where we will inspect bags and rucksacks.”
The National Gallery said it expects the extra security will cause delays for visitors and has apologised for inconvenience.
“We are sorry that visitors are, for the time being, not going to receive the welcome we would very much like to extend to them, but we hope that they understand why it is necessary for us to do this,” the spokesperson said.
Two Just Stop Oil activists jailed were jailed last month for pouring soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, after they came close to “destroying” the masterpiece.
Phoebe Plummer 23, and Anna Holland, 22, caused as much as £10,000 worth of damage to the artwork’s gold-coloured frame when they targeted it at the gallery.
Plummer received a two-year jail term, while Holland was handed 20 months.
The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting and gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.
On the day of their sentencing, two more Van Gogh works were targeted. Three Just Stop Oil supporters have denied carrying out an attack on two paintings after soup was thrown at them hours after the other activists were jailed, a court heard.
Stephen Simpson, 71, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, Mary Somerville, 77, also of Bradford, and Phillipa Green, 24, of Penryn, Cornwall, pleaded not guilty to criminal damage at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Two more Just Stop Oil protesters are accused of causing more than £6,000 of damage when they allegedly smashed the glass covering the Rokeby Venus - a mid-17th century painting of a nude goddess Venus gazing into a mirror held by Cupid.
Another pair of climate protesters were ordered to compensate the gallery after they were found guilty of causing more than £1,000 of damage to the Hay Wain, probably John Constable’s best-known painting.
Just Stop Oil supporters Hannah Hunt, 23, and Eden Lazarus, 22, taped printed posters of a dystopian reimagining of the landscape over its canvas, before glueing their hands to its gilt frame.
