Girls throw soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting; Check why
"The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost of the oil crisis. Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold-hungry families. They can't even afford to heat a tin of soup," one of the girls said.
LONDON: In what could be termed an astonishing move, two girls walked into London's National Gallery and threw tomato soup on famous painter Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting.
The artwork is estimated to be around USD 84.2 Million. In India Rupee, it converts to anything above Rs 693 crores (according to the current day conversion rate)!
In a video that has now gone viral over social media, the two girls can be seen throwing canned tomato soup over the famous painting, and soon after, they tried explaining their actions.
The girls then appeared to attach one hand to each of the walls beneath the picture while sporting shirts that read, "Just Stop Oil," before one of them yelled, "What is worth more? Art or life?" One of them said, "What is worth more? Art or life? Is it worth more than food...worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting? Or the protection of our planet and people?"
"The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost of the oil crisis. Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold-hungry families. They can't even afford to heat a tin of soup," she added.
Van Gogh's Sunflower series includes some of his most celebrated pieces.
Although he painted eleven of paintings in total, the seven that he did while he was at Arles in 1888-1889 are the ones that are most frequently mentioned. He had already painted the other five while in Paris in 1887.
The one that the two girls threw soup on was painted by Van Gogh during his time in Arles. "Sunflowers" almost resulted in violence. A Belgian painter objected angrily in 1890 in Brussels to having his works shown beside "Sunflowers," calling Vincent a conman.
When Henri Toulouse-Lautrec heard the derogatory comment, he issued a never-fulfilled duel challenge to the Belgian, which of course, never took place, as per vincentvangogh.org.
Coming back to the incident that took place in the National Gallery, the two girls belong to a climate change awareness group - 'Just Stop Oil'.
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