The two environmental activists who glued themselves to the glass of the painting “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” were sentenced to two months in prison.
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© Steve Parsons / MAXPPP / PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES/MAXPPP
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” NOT’anyone can imagine the fragility of such a painting and the fact that it could have been lost if it had gone wrong”, pointed out a judge in charge of the case, quoted by the Dutch press agency, the PNA. Two men of Belgian nationality who had glued themselves to the glass of the work The girl with the pearla painting by Johannes Vermeer exhibited at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague (Netherlands), were sentenced to two months in prison, one of which was suspended, Dutch media report.
Three men of Belgian nationality, two 45 years old and one 42, had glued themselves last week with strong glue on the glass protecting the work of 1665, at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague (West), in the process other acts of vandalism committed elsewhere in Europe. No damage was discovered to the painting, the museum said. But the court in The Hague admitted that the frame and the back plate were damaged and deemed the act “shocking” for many people, reported the ANP.
Other similar actions in Europe
The public prosecutor had requested four months in prison, two of which were suspended, against the suspect Wouter M. for sticking his head on the window. He claimed to have carefully investigated the dangers of his act, according to the ANP. Prosecutors had also requested four months, two of which were suspended, against the second suspect, Pieter G., who filmed the action. He denies having been aware of the images he was going to take, reported the ANP.
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.
READ ALSOVandalized paintings: the risk of “antipathy”
Environmental activists thus threw tomato soup on the glass plate protecting the Sunflowers by Van Gogh at the National Gallery in London and others smeared mashed potatoes on the glass protecting Millstonesa painting by Claude Monet, in Germany.
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