Beege wrote about this story a week ago when the two women who threw soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers were sentenced. Yesterday, Politico published a deep dive into the two activists behind this stunt and how they wound up getting a lot more time in jail than they bargained for.

Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer are about the same age but come from very different backgrounds. Holland grew up in a forested area in the north of England. Plummer was attending a ritzy private school and later dropped out of college after having some kind of breakdown. What they had in common was climate doomerism and gender identity.

Holland had ever been a rule-abider. Growing up in a small village in a wooded corner of northwest England, they were happy. Holland’s childhood was spent, largely, in the forest, or with their head in a book. (Both Holland and Plummer use “they” and “them” pronouns.)

Of course. People who seek out edgy trends seek out more than one. Holland was initially radicalized online.

As a reader, Holland fell most deeply for characters with a penchant for turmoil and revolution. But during their late teens, Holland’s social media feed gave them a sense that the world outside was even darker than the imagined worlds of their books. Holland kept a journal of anxious thoughts hidden under their mattress.

I have a strong suspicion the books in question are the Harry Potter novels and that Holland eventually turned into another woke scold denouncing JK Rowling for transphobia, but that's just a guess. In any case, both women joined up with Just Stop Oil. In Holland's case, she was attracted to their recruiting pitch about shifting the Overton Window. If you've ever wondered why these groups carry out stunts, like blocking streets during rush hour, that only serve to anger normal people, this is why.

Another activist spoke about how Just Stop Oil was part of a genealogy of activism that includes the suffragettes and the Black Panthers — groups that broke the law and were broadly despised among the public of their time but helped drive some of the great social changes of the 20th century...

The activists in Newcastle outlined the “radical flank effect,” a phenomenon first described in the 1980s by the American sociologist Herbert H. Haines in which jarring, destructive or unpopular acts of civil disorder legitimized more moderate positions, ultimately helping to bring about change.

The pair agreed to throw soup on Van Gogh's painting because there was an awareness that Just Stop Oil was fading from the headlines. The more outrageous the stunt, the better.

Just Stop Oil needed a hit. Media coverage of the movement had begun to taper off. Holland and some others, whom they have declined to name, had been kicking around ideas to get back into the headlines...

An assault on the “Sunflowers” would be deeply shocking.

Afterwards, they remained stuck to the wall with superglue until the police showed up to remove them. One gallery administrator had a simple message for them.

“You stupid bitches,” he said.

He was not wrong about them being stupid. They had scoped out the painting in advance and knew it was covered in glass. However, they didn't think about the frame which was older than the painting. The frame was damaged by their stunt. It was the damage to the frame, estimated at £10,000, that made their experience in court more than they bargained for

The frame around “Sunflowers” is older than the painting itself. A rare and intact 17th Century antique bought specifically for the painting in 1999, its timeworn coloration matched the flowers. It was thought to be the rustic and unadorned style that van Gogh himself would have preferred. 

Isabella Kocum, a conservator and artist, cleaned off the soup. But she was devastated to see that the acid inside it had acted as a paint stripper, eating away the silver leaf, clay undercoat and the irreplaceable patina built up over centuries.

There's a bit of legal backstory explaining why protesters in the UK almost always get away with no consequences. It's called the "necessity" defense and it has long been used to argue that protesters are fighting for a greater good when they break the law. That finally changed in 2021 when an appeals court in the UK announced that, from that point onward, the necessity defense would not save activists from facing consequences for their actions. 

In part, this change was due to regular people being fed up with the actions of Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and similar groups. Unfortunately for Holland and Plummer, their stupid stunt took place just a year after the law changed.

In July, five Just Stop Oil protesters — including the founder of Extinction Rebellion Roger Hallam — were handed four- or five-year terms for having organized a rolling four-day blockade of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway...

By the time Plummer and Holland went on trial in July, the new approach to protesters was in full effect. And the judge in charge, Christopher Hehir, had shown himself eager to apply it. It was Hehir who presided over Hallam’s case and handed him five years...

Hehir explicitly dismissed the necessity defense, or any other that spoke to Holland and Plummer’s motivations. He forbade the pair from talking to the jury about climate change or trying to justify their actions with their desperation to avert catastrophe.

The jury deliberated just two hours before convicting Holland and Plummer. I guess they were sick of these kinds of campaigns too. The judge gave Plummer 2 years and Holland got 20 months. And as Beege noted previously, one hour after the sentencing, another group of Just Stop Oil campaigners did it again.

🚨 BREAKING: 2 VAN GOGH PAINTINGS SOUPED HOURS AFTER PHOEBE AND ANNA SENTENCED

🥫 3 Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over 2 of Van Gogh paintings in the 'Poets and Lovers' exhibition at the National Gallery.

➡️ Support people in resistance: https://t.co/Rh65arOwa1 pic.twitter.com/Tc3Bvd10OB

— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) September 27, 2024

Some people only learn the hard way.