Two members of the London climate group Just Stop Oil have been sentenced to prison. They were pasted on the frame of a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the Courtauld Gallery in London on 30 June.
Louis McKechnie, 22, has been jailed for three weeks for criminal damage. He already has several criminal records. His colleague Emily Brocklebank was also sentenced to three weeks in prison on Tuesday. Her sentence was suspended for six months. In addition, the 24-year-old is subject to an electronically monitored six-week curfew.
Activist: Owner would have agreed to protest
In court, Brocklebank defended the action, stating that the owner of the painting had agreed to the protest. “Any good person would agree to try to sustain life on Earth,” she said. On June 30, the young climate activist and her colleague glued themselves to the frame of Vincent van Gogh’s painting Peach Trees in Bloom. There would have been damage of almost 2000 pounds (about 2300 euros). Student Brocklebank noticed that the glue would come off again and she didn’t expect her actions to do much damage.
“When it comes to protest, you don’t get a platform of speeches,” she said. A 21-year-old activist of the group is said to have distracted the security forces. However, the London court dropped these allegations and only fined him for not even appearing at the hearing.
Other court decisions
A “Just Stop Oil” action at London’s National Gallery is regarded as the start of the attacks on art. Two young women threw tomato soup in the direction of the work “Sunflowers”, also by Vincent van Gogh. The two pleaded not guilty in court and the trial will begin on December 13. There was already a court verdict in The Hague: three men were sentenced to two months in prison for attacking the painting “The girl with a pearl earring” (by Johannes Vermeer). Half of them are on probation.
Source: Krone
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