He took part in the protest alongside 23-year-old Ms Hunt, a psychology student who helped set up Just Stop Oil after orchestrating protests against the Extinction Rebellion and Britain’s Isolation. He released a statement saying: “You can forget about our ‘green and pleasant land’ when further oil extraction will lead to widespread crop failures, meaning we will struggle for food. Ultimately, new fossil fuels are a death project by our government.” The group said it had targeted the National Gallery because it had “no choice but to continue targeting major cultural events and sites in order to gain attention for the biggest crime against humanity”. The value of The Hay Wain is unclear, but the record price for a constable at auction was £22.5 million for The Lock in 2012. It is the latest demonstration by Just Stop Oil, which last week reportedly targeted a Scottish art gallery and stormed the British Grand Prix on Sunday. Five men, aged between 21 and 46, and two women, aged 20 and 44, were arrested after invading the track at the opening round of the race at Silverstone. The incident was not shown on F1’s global television feed, but eyewitness footage emerged of five people – believed to be representing Just Stop Oil – entering the track on the Wellington Straight. Then they sat on the tarmac. Five members of Just Stop Oil are also said to be attached to My Heart’s In The Highlands, a 19th-century landscape by Horatio McCulloch at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. They also allegedly spray painted the team’s logo on the walls and floor of the gallery in orange.
