Malvern woman fined for gluing herself to £3.6 million painting

Lucy Porter, 47, and four other Just Stop Oil activists were ordered to pay £486 each for criminal damage following a demonstration at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly last year.

On July 5, the group glued themselves to the border of a life-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, created by his pupils in around 1515-20.

Porter, a former teacher, was joined by Jessica Agar, 22, Simon Bramwell, 50, Tristan Strange, 40, and Caspar Hughes, 51, who had previously admitted to spraying ‘No New Oil’ on a wall beneath the artwork.

READ MORE: Malvern woman glued herself to copy of da Vinci's The Last Supper

Climate activists Simon Bramwell, Lucy Porter and Caspar Hughes, outside the City Of London Magistrates' Court (Image: PA WIRE)

On Wednesday, following a two-day trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court, District Judge William Nelson explained that the group had caused £180 of damage, with the museum forced to close for the day.

He told the court that the “primary cause” of their protest “was to gain media attention and not to cause damage to a work of art”.

However, he agreed with prosecutor Robert Simpson’s argument that the protesters were “reckless” in that they knew damage to the frame would be a “by-product” of their actions.

The judge described the case as “unusual” because all of the witnesses, including the defendants, were “credible” and had given “detailed” accounts of the large amount of planning which went into their protest.

District Judge Nelson added that the defendants “took efforts to minimise the damage they would cause” by experimenting with gluing themselves to different types of wood beforehand, and using soluble spray paint.

They also targeted the Royal Academy of Arts because it had lower footfall than other galleries which would minimise the risk of “things getting out of control”, he said.

The activists had also previously been accused of causing £539.40 of damage to a nearby sofa, but the judge concluded that they were not responsible for this because CCTV evidence showed they were “nowhere near” it during the protest.

Outlining the reason for the terms of their punishment, the judge said: “I accept that the damage value if you take away the sofa is only £180.

“This is not a huge amount of money.

“However, the value of the damage is not the only barometer of which one measures its significance.

“The gallery had to shut for a day and rope off the area, and the repairs required proper, managed, thought-out conservation work by experts to ensure that the intrinsic value of the painting was the same.”

District Judge Nelson sentenced them all equally on the basis that each had been “accessories” to Hughes’ additional act through their joint planning of the protest.

Simon Bramwell spoke to the media after he and four other Just Stop Oil activists were fined for causing criminal damage after gluing their hands to the frame of a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper (Image: PA WIRE)

Following the sentencing, Bramwell told reporters that their fines would not deter them from taking part in future protests and that he believes da Vinci would have supported them.

He said: “I am confident that if Leonardo da Vinci were looking down on us, he would 100 per cent agree with what we’ve done.

“He was quoted saying that ‘nature never breaks her own laws’. But we are breaking nature’s laws every day and as a result we’re killing the planet.”

When asked whether he was disappointed with the outcome of their case, he said: “I’m always disappointed because once again the law is failing the people of Britain, the law is failing the planet.

“As regards to this particular case, we do what we believe we have to do according to our consciences, and according to the hard science.”