Two girls entered London's National Gallery and, in what can only be described as an unusual act, splashed tomato soup over Van Gogh's iconic "Sunflowers" painting. The artwork is worth approximately USD 84.2 million. According to the current exchange rate, it is equivalent to anything over Rs 693 crores in Indian rupees.
In a video that is making waves on the internet, the two girls can be seen throwing canned tomato soup over the iconic 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?"
She further added, "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."
Van Gogh's Sunflower series contains some of his most well-known works. Despite the fact that he completed eleven paintings, the seven that he completed at Arles between 1888 and 1889 are the ones that are most usually cited. While in Paris in 1887, he painted the other five already.
The one that the two girls threw soup on was painted by Van Gogh during his time in Arles. "Sunflowers" almost resulted in violence.
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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 viral incident, The two girls are members of the "Just Stop Oil" climate change awareness group.
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- With ANI inputs
