Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring was back on display at a museum in The Hague on Friday, a day after it was targeted by climate activists.
Three men were arrested on Thursday after they glued themselves to the Dutch Master’s famous 1665 painting at the city’s Mauritshuis museum during peak visiting hours.
“We are pleased to announce that at 15:30 (13:30 GMT) the ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ was returned to its rightful place in the Mauritshuis by our staff,” the museum said.
“We are incredibly grateful that the girl was unharmed and returned to her familiar place so quickly,” added Museum Director Martine Gosselink.
Vermeer’s work – which has inspired a best-selling novel and a Hollywood film – has been examined in the museum’s conservation studio and found undamaged, the museum added.
The climate activists, three Belgians in their 40s, were arrested shortly after the incident, stunning visitors and forcing museum staff to cordon off the premises.
Social media images showed a man wearing a “Just Stop Oil” t-shirt and taped his head to the glass protecting the canvas, while another taped his hand to the wall and a third a can of what appeared to be Tomato soup emptied.
The climate activists said they had no intention of damaging the painting, which Gosselink said was very vulnerable.
Just Stop Oil, which calls for urgent action to stop the global warming that is making the planet uninhabitable, said on its website that it had begun using shock tactics targeting iconic artworks to make people think what they consider valuable and how to protect it.
“It enables a conversation,” the coalition of anti-fossil fuel groups said.
“There is an apocalyptic, climate-related famine in Somalia that hasn’t compelled me to speak out. But now I’m venting my anger at a piece of art in a gallery. Does any of this match? What am I really doing? value here?”
The stunt at the Mauritshuis comes after activists threw soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London on October 14 and smeared mashed potatoes over a painting by Claude Monet in Germany. Both canvases were protected by glass and undamaged.
