Three Just Stop Oil supporters have denied carrying out an attack after soup was thrown at two Van Gogh paintings just hours after other activists were jailed, a court heard.
Both paintings were versions of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and were targeted at the National Gallery on Friday.
At Westminister Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 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.
It came shortly after two other Just Stop Oil activists were jailed for pouring soup over the Dutch artist’s Sunflowers and damaging their frames in October 2022.
Prosecutor James Bowker said the damaged frames of the sunflowers paintings “loved by millions of people around the world and in the UK” have a “serious social impact”.
He added the value of the damage “could be a high total” once assessed, noting an antique frame owned by the National Gallery, estimated to be worth £10,000 to £20,000, would “likely require lengthy restoration”.
The value of the other frame on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art was “unknown, but likely to be in a similar range”, he said.
The prosecutor told the court that the defendants entered the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the art museum in Trafalgar Square at around 2.30pm on Friday.
Mr Bowker said Simpson and charity worker Green threw soup onto a painting on the left of the gallery and retired teacher Somerville threw soup onto a painting on the right.
The trio then took off their coats to reveal t-shirts which said “Just Stop Oil” on them, the court heard.
Defending, Raj Chada said the damage to the frames had not been assessed yet, adding that “there was no damage to the paintings whatsoever”.
“They have been covered by a very thick protective glass screen.”
The incident came after the sentencing on Friday of Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, who were jailed after causing damage to the frame of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Plummer received a two-year jail term, while Holland was handed 20 months.
Judge Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the pair at Southwark crown court on Friday, called the stunt “stupidity” and concluded they “couldn’t have cared less” if Sunflowers had been damaged.
“The frame was permanently damaged by your idiotic and criminal actions”, he said.
“The painting itself, Sunflowers, could have been seriously damaged or even destroyed. Your stance at trial was a blithe dismissal of the risk involved in what you did.”
The protesters threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting while wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts and gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.
District Judge Minhas bailed Simpson, Somerville and Green who walked from the public gallery pumping their fists and waving at supporters.
They had been bailed with the condition of not entering the Greater London area within the M25 except for pre-arranged court appearances.
