JSO supporters caused £6,445 of damage in National Gallery protest, court told

The damage to the glass defending a National Gallery portray allegedly inflicted by Simply Cease Oil protesters will price greater than £6,000 to restore, a court heard.

Harrison Donnelly, 20, and Hanan Ameur, 22, pleaded not responsible at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to inflicting £6,445 of prison damage by allegedly smashing the glass overlaying a mid-Seventeenth century portray of a nude goddess Venus gazing right into a mirror held by Cupid.

On the morning of November 6, the duo reportedly hit small orange hammers towards the glass defending the “very well-known” portray referred to as Rokeby Venus, or The Bathroom of Venus.

Suffragette Mary Richardson attacked the identical Diego Velazquez paintings utilizing a meat cleaver in 1906 on the central London gallery, protesting towards the arrest of activist Emmeline Pankhurst.

The paintings itself will not be believed to have suffered damage in the incident, the court heard.

District Decide Michael Snow granted them conditional bail till their pre-trial plea listening to at Southwark Crown Court on December 19 this yr.

He banned Donnelly, of Sillitoe Approach, Nottingham, from getting into contained in the M25 aside from to attend court or meet his solicitors, and Ameur, of Hornsey Highway, Islington, was forbidden from getting into the London borough of Westminster even to journey via it.

Decide Snow stated: “Should you come again (to court) for one thing else I’ll remand you into custody.

“If you wish to be inside (jail) for Christmas commit one other offence and that’s what’s going to occur to you.”

Days earlier than the alleged offence on the National Gallery, Ameur pleaded not responsible to aggravated trespass after reportedly storming a efficiency of Les Miserables in London’s West Finish, for which she and 4 others will stand trial on February 5 subsequent yr.

Following the listening to, the National Gallery stated “minimal damage” had been sustained to the floor of the portray.

“Due to this fact, it is going to be present process conservation therapy earlier than going again on show.”