Climate activists dump soup on Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring

Published October 27, 2022 4:50pm ET



Dutch police arrested three climate protesters with the group Just Stop Oil on Thursday after they threw paint on and glued themselves to Johannes Vermeer’s famous 1665 painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, on display in the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague.

Video published on social media showed one activist gluing his own head to the painting, which is protected by glass, before he was joined by another protester, who covered the painting in what appeared to be tomato soup.

The museum said in a statement that the work had been examined by its restorers and was not damaged. “Art is defenceless and the Mauritshuis strongly rejects trying to damage it for whatever purpose,” it said.

Ten days earlier, Just Stop Oil activists were arrested in London for dumping tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and gluing themselves beneath the painting.


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Protesters have also glued themselves to the frame of Van Gogh’s painting Peach Trees in Bloom, dumped mashed potatoes on a Claude Monet painting, and targeted historic works by Pablo Picasso and other world-renowned artists.