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.

Continue reading

Vermeer exhibition to unite Milkmaid, Girl with a Pearl Earring

Left, Johannes Vermeer, ‘The Milkmaid,’ circa 1660; right, Johannes Vermeer, ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ 1665. Both works will appear in a blockbuster show opening in February 2023 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam that will feature 27 of the 35 known works by Vermeer. Images courtesy of the Rijksmuseum
Left, Johannes Vermeer, ‘The Milkmaid,’ circa 1660; right, Johannes Vermeer, ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ 1665. Both works will appear in a blockbuster show opening in February 2023 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam that will feature 27 of the 35 known works by Vermeer. Images courtesy of the Rijksmuseum

AMSTERDAM (AP) – The Rijksmuseum will unite two iconic paintings from Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer early next year – The Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. In an unprecedented blockbuster exhibit starting in February 2023, the most famous museum in the Netherlands will bring together 27 of the 35 known paintings of the 17th-century artist who had the uncanny genius of letting a soothing inner light exude from his canvas.

Continue reading