Three protestors who threw liquid at Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and glued themselves to the wall have had their sentences overturned on appeal.

The Belgian activists from the group Just Stop Oil targeted the painting in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague in October 2022 to raise awareness of climate change.

The painting itself, which dates from around 1665, was undamaged, but the frame and the protective glass needed to be cleaned. The museum had to compensate visitors who were unable to see the artwork while it was removed.

One of the three men threw the liquid while the other glued himself to the wall and the third filmed the scene.

District court judges sentenced the men to a two-month spell in prison, half of it suspended. But the appeal court said a jail term would infringe their right to freedom of expression and deter other people who wanted to protest peacefully.

The court also gave the men credit for inspecting the painting beforehand to make sure the canvas would not be damaged by their actions.