‘Just Stop Oil’ Activists Fined For Causing Damage To John Constable Painting
Image via Just Stop Oil
No work of art seems to be safe from the clutches of Just Stop Oil and its activists, who in the past months have targeted everything from Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers to a wax sculpture of King Charles III.
Two protesters now face fines of over £1,000 after causing damage to John Constable’s most notable painting, The Hay Wain (1821), in July.
Hannah Hunt, 23, and Eden Lazarus, 22, have pled guilty to aggravated trespass at the National Gallery in London, where they pasted posters of a dystopian depiction over the scene to illustrate how the world could look if the UK government continued enabling the production and mining of oil.
Three panels stuck onto the canvas envisioned a road in place of the original river, with the eponymous hay wain as a broken washing machine, and smoke billowing out of factories in the far distance. The performers also glued their hands to the painting’s frame.
“You can forget our ‘green and pleasant land’ when further oil extraction will lead to widespread crop failures, which means we will be fighting for food,” Hunt was heard declaring then.
Image via Just Stop Oil
The art incurred £1,081 (US$1,312) worth of damage as a result of the stunt, the Guardian reports. The gallery’s workers took it down to have it restored, before fitting it with a glass layer and displaying it again the following morning.
The two were convicted of causing criminal damage at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday. However, they argued that articles 10 and 11 of the European convention of human rights, which allow for the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, dictated they were acting in accordance with the law.
“This demonstration was an act of expression aimed to raise public awareness of the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, not an endeavor intended to damage private property, nor a reckless, unconsidered act of vandalism,” said the pair, who represented themselves in court.
District judge Daniel Sternberg dismissed their claims, detailing that the impact on the work was “significant, not trivial,” and that the offenders were indeed being “reckless.”
Just Stop Oil said in a statement that the prosecution had asked for a custodial sentence to be handed to the activists, which would subject them to either time in prison or time under observation in a closed therapeutic or reformatory institution. The judge rejected this request.
Instead, he put each activist on an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered them to compensate the National Gallery 100% of the painting’s restoration cost (£540.74 split equally).
Sternberg warned that if the two protesters escalated their activity during the 18 months, their case would be “reopened” and they could even be put behind bars.
Such punishments haven’t deterred Just Stop Oil from going forward with its art protests. Earlier this month, the collective said it would resort to slashing artworks if the government wouldn’t stop financing gas and oil projects.
[via The Guardian and Evening Standard, images via Just Stop Oil]
