MADRID, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The two climate activists who staged a protest action in a museum in The Hague against the painting ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, one of them even sticking his head to the famous painting by Johannes Vermeer with glue, have been sentenced to two months in prison.
A judge of a court in The Hague has considered proven the intention of destruction against the painting, which was not damaged, and has described the protest action as “shocking”. “It is possible that he tried to cause as little damage as possible, but by the way he acted he accepted the possibility that the painting could be damaged,” he said, according to the NOS broadcasting company.
The sentence has been lower than that previously demanded by the Prosecutor’s Office, which requested four months in prison, two of them conditional, against those responsible. The third of those involved has not appeared in court for disagreeing with the speedy trial, but will be tried in the future.
The Dutch Police arrested three activists for this action: one of them for hitting his head against the painting, the other for throwing a red liquid on the painting, protected by glass, and the third for supposedly recording the protest action.
After the event, the Mauritshuis museum lamented the “helplessness” of art and condemned any attempt to damage the works, regardless of their objectives. In recent weeks, there have been protests at museums around the world, with incidents in Germany, the UK and France.
