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The demonstrators, who are part of the campaign group Just Stop Oil Belgium, were each given sentences of two months, one of which was suspended.
“How do you feel when you see something beautiful and priceless being apparently destroyed before your eyes?” one of the men asked onlookers in English. “Do you feel outraged? Good. Where is that feeling when you see the planet being destroyed before our very eyes?”
Police officers standing guard outside the Mauritshuis museum shortly after the incident on October 27, 2022. Credit: Phil Nijhuisanp/ANP/AFP/Getty Images
Gallery visitors can be heard objecting with cries of “obscene” and “shame on you.”
“This painting is protected by glass, it’s just fine,” the protester continued. “Vulnerable people in the Global South, they are not protected. The future of our children is not protected.”
In a press release announcing ruling, the prosecutors said they had wanted to “send out a signal” to activists, adding: “An artwork hanging there for everyone, all of us to enjoy, has been smeared by (defendants) who felt their message took precedence over everything else.”
Prosecutors had initially asked for four months, with two suspended, but the judge said she did not want her sentence to discourage other people from demonstrating, according to Reuters.
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The two men went to trial through a fast-track judgment on charges of destruction and open violence against the painting. The third activist, who did not agree with the trial being fast-tracked, will appear in court on Friday. Prosecutors said all three are “jointly responsible” for the act, Reuters said.
Responding to court Wednesday’s ruling, Just Stop Oil Belgium, which is not affiliated with its British namesake, told Reuters by email: “Isn’t it ironic that climate activists who nonviolently oppose the mass slaughter of life on Earth are being condemned?”
Additional reporting by Reuters.
Top image: Visitors looks at Johannes Vermeer’s painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.
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