Environmental activists assault The Lady with a Pearl Earring

Environmental activists have focused the portray Lady with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, we discovered from the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague and the police. Three individuals have been arrested on Thursday.

Two individuals approached the portray and a 3rd threw an unknown substance on it, however the work, protected below glass, was not broken, the Mauritshuis stated in an announcement to AFP.

Pictures on social media confirmed activists sporting ‘Simply Cease Oil’ t-shirts.

A number of precedents

This motion comes on the heels of different acts of vandalism in latest weeks. Environmental activists threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers on the Nationwide Gallery in London and smeared mashed potatoes on a portray by Claude Monet in Germany.

“Round 2 p.m., two individuals caught to the earring of the Younger Lady with The Pearl by Johannes Vermeer,” the Mauritshuis stated in an announcement to AFP.

‘One particular person caught their head in opposition to the portray, which was protected by glass, and the opposite particular person caught their hand in opposition to the wall the place the portray hangs. A 3rd particular person threw an unknown substance on the portray,’ the museum continued.

‘Our specialists instantly inspected the portray. Fortuitously, it was not broken’. The portray might be exhibited once more ‘as quickly as attainable’, the museum stated.

‘Artwork can’t defend itself and try to wreck it for any cause, is one thing we strongly condemn,’ the Mauritshuis added.

Three arrests

Police in The Hague stated on Twitter that they’d arrested three individuals at a museum for “public violence in opposition to property”.

Dozens of individuals have been gathered contained in the museum awaiting details about the incident, whereas safety guards prevented them from getting too near different work, an AFP journalist famous.

The doorway to the room the place the ‘Lady with a Pearl Earring’ usually sits was blocked by a big oil portray replica and a guard stated it could possible be closed for the remainder of the day.

Two police vans have been parked outdoors the museum because the investigation continued.

/ATS