Two environmental activists were sentenced Wednesday to two months in prison, one of them suspended, for attacking Girl with a Pearl Earring, a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer exhibited in the Netherlands, Dutch media reported.
Three men of Belgian nationality, two 45 years old and one 42, had stuck last week with strong glue on the glass that protected the 1665 work, in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague (west), as a result of other acts of vandalism committed. elsewhere in Europe.
No damage to the painting was discovered, the museum said. But the court in The Hague recognized that the frame and back plate were damaged and considered the act “shocking” for many people, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.
“Anyone can imagine the fragility of such a painting and the fact that it could have been lost if it had gone wrong,” a judge said.
Other Directed Paintings
The prosecutor had requested four months in prison, two of which were suspended, against the suspect Wouter M. for sticking his head out the window. He claimed to have carefully investigated the dangers of his act.
Prosecutors had also asked for four months, two of which were suspended, against second suspect Pieter G., who filmed the action. He denies having been aware of the images he was going to take. The third activist, who emptied a can that appeared to contain tomato sauce, will be tried on Friday, according to the ANP.
The action in the Netherlands came on the heels of other acts of vandalism in recent weeks. Environmental activists threw tomato soup on the glass plate that protects Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London and others spread mashed potatoes on the glass that protects Meules, a painting by Claude Monet, in Germany.
Source: BFM TV
