(The Hague) The Girl with the Pearl Earringa famous painting by Johannes Vermeer, was returned to its place on Friday in a Dutch museum after being targeted by environmental activists the day before, without being damaged.
Posted at 12:01
Three men of Belgian nationality, two aged 45 and one aged 42, glued themselves on Thursday with strong glue on the glass protecting the work of 1665, at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, in the wake of other acts of vandalism similar elsewhere in Europe.
They were immediately arrested. The prosecution said on Twitter on Friday that the three men remained in detention “at least for the weekend” for vandalism and open violence against property.
“We are pleased to say that at 3:30 p.m., The Girl with the Pearl Earring has been returned to its rightful place in the Mauritshuis by members of our staff,” the museum said in a statement.
“We are extremely grateful that ‘La Jeune Fille’ has remained intact and is back in its place so quickly”, rejoiced the director of the museum, Martine Gosselink, quoted in the press release.
No damage was discovered to the painting after it was examined in the Mauritshuis conservation workshop, the museum said.
In a video of the incident posted on Twitter, we see two men dressed in t-shirts bearing the image of the “Just Stop Oil” collective. One sticks his hand on the wall next to the painting. The other sticks his head on the glass plate protecting the canvas and a third activist empties a tin can which seems to contain tomato sauce.
This action came on the heels of other acts of vandalism in recent weeks. Environmental activists thus threw tomato soup on the glass plate protecting the Sunflowers of Van Gogh at the National Gallery in London and others smeared mashed potatoes on the glass protecting the grinding wheelsa painting by Claude Monet, in Germany.