Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ back on display

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” went back on display at the Netherlands’ Mauritshuis museum Friday, a day after climate activists targeted the 17th-century masterpiece.

“We are incredibly grateful that ‘The Girl’ remained undamaged and is back in her familiar place so quickly,” the museum’s director, Martine Gosselink, said in a statement.

A video posted Thursday on Twitter showed a man pouring a red substance from a can over another protester who appeared to attempt to glue his head to the glass-protected painting. The second man stuck his hand to the panel holding the painting.

The painting was removed from the wall and thoroughly checked in the museum’s conservation studio. It went back on wall Friday afternoon.

Police arrested three people for “public violence against property.” Their identities were not released, in line with Dutch privacy rules.

Earlier this month, climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum. Other protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery. In both cases, the paintings were undamaged.

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