Two Just Stop Oil activists damaged varnish on £100m Rokeby Venus oil painting in National Gallery after smashing glass with hammer, court hears
A court heard two Just Stop Oil activists smashed the glass of a £100 million painting with a hammer and damaged its finish during an attack to draw attention to their campaign against North Sea drilling.
Harrison Donnelly, 23, and Hanan Ameur, 25, were said to have attacked Diego Velázquez’s 17th-century masterpiece Venus of Rokeby at the National Gallery while wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts on November 6, 2023.
The environmental protest group uploaded a video of the attack to social media, in which attackers used a hammer to break a protective window, causing damage totaling £6,445, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Velázquez’s painting, depicting the naked goddess Venus gazing into a mirror held by Cupid, had previously been attacked with a meat cleaver by suffragette Mary Richardson in March 1914.
Prosecutor Charles Evans said: ‘Climate crisis protest group Just Stop Oil launched a short campaign in the autumn of 2023. [attract] It attracted the attention of the public and the government who were against planned oil drilling in the North Sea.
‘They decided on an action that could not be ignored. One of the actions designed to be newsworthy and attract attention was the attack on a special painting in the National Gallery.
‘Value [of the painting] was around £100 million.
‘In 1914, Canadian suffragist Mary Richardson smashed this painting with a knife.’
Rokeby Venus was attacked in 2023, its protective glass shattered with a hammer and its finish damaged, court heard
The video, uploaded to social media by environmental group Just Stop Oil, shows a man standing in front of the broken glass protecting the painting.
Mr Evans said Donnelly and Ameur ‘jumped up, took off their coats, approached the painting and started painting with these hammers’.
‘It was all over in about five seconds,’ he added.
At the hearing, Ameur said: ‘Women did not get votes by voting. Now is the time for action, not words. It’s time to Stop the Oil.’
Donnelly said: ‘Politics are failing us… Millions will die because of new oil and gas licences. If we love history, if we love art, if we love our families, we must Stop the Oil.’
Mr Evans continued: ‘Fortunately the damage to the painting was minor but the damage was there and needed to be rectified. There were three small areas of damage to the finish.’
‘The prosecution’s claim is that there was no reason or excuse for the defendants to damage the painting in this way. They didn’t have to do this to convey their opinions to the government.’
Purchased by the National Gallery in 1906 for £45,000, Venus by Rokeby is the only nude painting in Velázquez’s career.
Donnelly, of Sillitoe Way, Nottingham, and Ameur, of Hornsey Road, Islington, deny any damage to property.
The trial continues.
