The three Belgian activists who painted the famous Johannes Vermeer painting yesterday The girl with the pearl smeared in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, remain stuck for longer. They are suspected of vandalism and open violence against goods.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, trace investigations are still being done and the damage report has yet to come. It will become clear after the weekend whether the three suspects will remain in prison longer.
The activists (45, 45 and 42) glued themselves to the glass that hangs in front of the painting and to the wall next to the canvas. Soup was also poured over the protester who stuck himself to the glass. That man is the well-known Belgian climate activist Wouter Mouton. The painting itself was not damaged, but the frame and back plate suffered minor damage as a result of the action, the Mauritshuis said yesterday.
‘Destroyed something beautiful before your eyes’
During the smearing, the activists wore T-shirts of the British action group Just Stop Oil. A video on social media showed one of the men shouting in English: “How does it feel to see something beautiful destroyed before your eyes?” Another video showed how the same activist shouted that ‘the painting is behind glass’. Yet the visitors present in the Mauritshuis react audibly with disapproval.
The three would be part of the Belgian branch of the climate group Just Stop Oil. One of the detainees is fairly notorious: Wouter Mouton previously carried out campaigns for the climate in Belgium. For example, he disrupted the Tour of Flanders by running up the course during the final sprint.
Also, the action in the Mauritshuis was by no means his first stunt in a museum. Last summer Mouton stuck to the security glass in front of the artwork Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele by Jan van Eyck, which hangs in the Groeninge Museum in Bruges. Mouton has a long career as a riot activist and invariably refuses to pay the fines he receives.
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