At least three people were arrested this Thursday for trying to destroy the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1665), by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, authorities have announced.
The Mauritshuis Museum guarantees in a statement that the artwork, one of Vermeer’s most famous portraits, has not been damaged and that the space in which it is exhibited has been closed to the public for examination.
In the video of the attack, shared on social media, two men can be seen next to the painting by Vermeer, one of whom is leaning his head against the painting and the other is pouring a can of tomato soup into it. The two activists are wearing a nightgown that refers to the Just Stop Oil movement.
“How does it feel to see something so beautiful and precious destroyed before your eyes? Do you feel indignant? Good. Where is that feeling while the planet is being destroyed? This painting is protected by glass, don’t worry. Our children’s future is not protected,” says one of the activists, in front of the guards and other visitors who tell him to shut up.
Thursday’s attack is similar to what happened on the 14th, in which environmentalists from the Just Stop Oil movement threw the contents of two cans of tomato soup at Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” (1888), on display at the National Gallery, London. The frame was slightly damaged.
In July they stuck to the frame of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” at the National Gallery.
The group has attracted attention, and is criticized, for its actions against works of art in museums.
Last weekend, activists from the German climate action group Letzte Generation threw mashed potatoes at a painting by French painter Claude Monet on display at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany.
Source: DN
