Climate activists get a month in prison for Vermeer protest

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands, photographed in 2011. On November 2, two Belgian climate change activists who used Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in a stunt meant to draw attention to their cause were each sentenced to one month in prison. A third suspect will appear in court on November 4. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Wolfgang Pehlemann. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands, photographed in 2011. On November 2, two Belgian climate change activists who used Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in a stunt meant to draw attention to their cause were each sentenced to one month in prison. A third suspect will appear in court on November 4. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Wolfgang Pehlemann. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands, photographed in 2011. On November 2, two Belgian climate change activists who used Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in a stunt meant to draw attention to their cause were each sentenced to one month in prison. A third suspect will appear in court on November 4. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Wolfgang Pehlemann. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Two Belgian activists who targeted Johannes Vermeer’s iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring painting in a climate protest last week were sentenced on November 2 to two months in prison, with prosecutors saying their action “crossed a line” of acceptable protest. Half of the sentence was suspended by a judge in The Hague, meaning the men will serve one month. A third suspect is due in court Friday. Their identities were not released, in line with Dutch privacy rules.

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