Two Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists who threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers have been found guilty of criminal damage.
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both 22, launched the contents of two tins of tomato soup on to the painting at the National Gallery in central London, later gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.
The gallery previously said the gold-coloured frame of the glass-covered painting was damaged in the October 2022 attack.
At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir told the pair to be “prepared in practical and emotional terms to go to prison” when they are sentenced on 27 September.
Judge Hehir said they “came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world”.
He set bail conditions for Plummer, of Clapham in south-west London, and Holland, of Newcastle, which stipulate they must not carry glue, paint or any adhesive substance in a public place, and must not visit any galleries or museums.
Last week, the same judge sentenced five JSO activists to jail terms of between four and five years.
