“Girl with a Pearl Earring” target of climate activists

Climate activists have again attacked a work of art in protest: According to the Mauritshuis in The Hague Two activists taped themselves to Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and the adjacent wall on Thursday, while a third person spilled an “unknown substance” on the famous painting. Fortunately, the painting was behind glass and remained undamaged, the museum said.

Footage posted online showed activists in Just Stop Oil shirts shouting, “How are you feeling?” Museum visitors reacted angrily and cursed “shame” and “you are stupid”. The police reported three arrests.

According to the museum, the attack began around 2 p.m.: One person glued his head to the glass in front of the Johannes Vermeer painting, another glued his hand to the green wall next to it, and a third threw the substance. “Art is defenseless and we condemn in the strongest terms any attempt to damage it for any reason,” the Mauritshuis declared.

The entrance to the room where “Girl with a Pearl Earring” normally hangs was blocked by a large reproduction of an oil painting in the afternoon. According to a security guard, it will likely remain closed for the rest of the day. According to the museum, Vermeer’s famous painting is to be exhibited again “as soon as possible”.

Just Stop Oil had held various actions and blockades since the beginning of the month; among other things, activists in London’s National Gallery showered Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Sunflowers” with tomato soup, on Monday activists threw at the wax figure of König Charles III at Madame Tussauds in London with chocolate cake. With their actions, “Just Stop Oil” wants to stop all new oil and gas projects.

On Sunday, in turn, two activists from the group “Last Generation” had a painting by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet thrown at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam with mashed potatoes. In other cities, too, there have always been sensational protests by environmental and climate activists.