Just Stop Oil Activists Spared Jail After Glueing Themselves To Turner Painting

Just Stop Oil

A Manchester Magistrates’ Court judge has spared jail for two activists from Just Stop Oil who had glued themselves to a JMW Turner painting at Manchester Art Gallery. In a verdict that starkly contrasts with the jailing of two protesters who recently threw soup over a Van Gogh painting, the judge considered the pair’s actions “proportionate” given the worsening climate crisis.

The incident occurred on July 1, 2022, when Eddie Whittingham, 27, and Paul Bell, 24, gained access to the gallery and sprayed the words “No New Oil” with chalk on the floor below Turner’s serene landscape Tomson’s Aeolian Harp (1809). Then, the two glued their hands on the artwork’s frame to protest against continued fossil fuel extraction.

The activists appeared in court and were charged with criminal damage of less than £5,000 for the damage done to the frame and the gallery floor. However, a news release from the group Just Stop Oil announced that the activists were cleared when the judge accepted that the grave urgency of the threats posed by climate change was proportionate to their actions.

Turner
Photo Via X

Speaking outside court, Bell defended their protest, insisting it stemmed from a deep love for art rather than any desire to destroy it. “In the courtroom today, I told the judge that my actions were not out of a hatred of art but out of a love for it,” he said. The artists of tomorrow, and many today around the world, are having the climate crisis steal their chance to create.

This acquittal comes less than a week after two other Just Stop Oil activists, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, were sentenced to terms of two years and 20 months, respectively, for a more high-profile protest in October 2022. Plummer and Holland made world headlines when they threw cans of soup at the Van Gogh Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London. Although the painting was behind glass and didn’t sustain any damage, prosecutors insisted the soup could have acted like a “paint stripper” to the frame, causing up to £10,000 in damages. Both activists denied damaging the property.

Reflecting on the differing outcomes of these cases, Whittingham condemned the harsh sentencing of Plummer and Holland: “Paul and I are rightly at liberty,” he said, criticising the justice system for what he sees as inconsistency. “The sentencing of Plummer and Holland demonstrates that our justice system is broken. The law is failing us, and the judiciary and courts are complicit in genocide.”

His comments signal an increasingly bitter battleground between climate protesters and the courts. Just Stop Oil, whose antics have varied from splattering artwork with soup to glueing its members to highroads, says desperate measures are called to wake people up to the existential threat from fossil fuels and climate breakdown.

While both Whittingham and Bell have not been sent to jail so far, the assault on environmental protesters is far from over. Fourteen Just Stop Oil supporters are currently in prison, serving sentences of up to five years for a range of acts of civil disobedience. However, the group’s determination to continue its high-profile protests until the government halts all new oil and gas projects in the UK is unwavering. Their persistence is a testament to the strength of the environmental movement.

The legal contrast raises questions about how far the judiciary is prepared to go in either supporting or punishing environmental activism. While protests have sometimes been regarded as necessary acts of civil resistance, harsh sentences are rising. Some say the courts want to silence dissent rather than take up the cause of the protests, the climate emergency.

This was not the first time Whittingham and Bell had taken direct action, and it is unlikely to be the last. They are part of a new generation of climate activists who believe there is little alternative to disruptive methods. Their dedication to their cause and belief that such protests are about far more than the immediate damage they can cause is inspiring. They are forcing society to confront the reality of climate collapse before it is too late.

Bell’s final words to the court resonated with a sense of urgency. “The climate crisis is already here, and it’s taking away the futures of so many people. We can’t sit idly by while the world burns. If that means taking action that might upset some people in the short term, then so be it. We must act now before it’s too late.”

With environmental protests only set to escalate, the court has not yet given any clear direction on how the right to civil disobedience should be weighed against the need to ensure public and cultural spaces are adequately protected. For now, though, Whittingham and Bell walk free as the court considers their protest proportionate in a world teetering toward ecological collapse.

Top Photo: Courtesy Just Stop Oil

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