Green activists attack Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. – Twitter capture
No damage was found to the painting, but the judiciary found the act “shocking” for many people and indicated that it “may have gone badly”.
Two environmental activists were sentenced on Wednesday to two months in prison, one of which was suspended, for attacking the famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer, Dutch media reported.
Three men of Belgian nationality, two aged 45 and one aged 42, had last week stuck themselves with strong glue to the glass protecting the 1665 work in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague (West), and other files afterwards of vandalism committed elsewhere in Europe.
The museum said no damage was found to the painting. However, the court in The Hague conceded that the frame and backplate were damaged and deemed the act “shocking” for many people, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
“Anyone can imagine the fragility of such a painting and the fact that if it went wrong it would have been lost,” said one judge.
Targeted other paintings
The public prosecutor’s office had applied for four months’ imprisonment, two of which were suspended, against the suspect Wouter M. because he had stuck his head on the window. He claimed to have carefully investigated the dangers of his act.
The public prosecutor’s office had also applied for four months against the second suspect, Pieter G., who had filmed the action, two of which were probation. He denies having known about the pictures he wanted to take. The third activist who emptied a can that appeared to contain tomato sauce will face trial on Friday, according to the ANP.
The action in the Netherlands followed other acts of vandalism in recent weeks. Environmental activists threw tomato soup on the glass panel protecting Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, and others smeared mashed potatoes on the glass panel protecting Meules, a painting by Claude Monet, in Germany.
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Original article published on BFMTV.com
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