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A pro-Palestinian protester destroyed a painting of former British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour at Cambridge University, the Daily Mail reported. In the recording, which was also published on social media, you can see how the perpetrator first sprays the picture with red paint, and then cuts it apart with some kind of cutting tool. The damage seems very serious, perhaps irreparable.
The pro-Palestinian protester probably had a problem with the politician because, as British Foreign Minister, Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1917, in which he expressed his support for the project of a “Jewish national home” to be established in Palestine. The otherwise cautiously worded and legally non-binding so-called Balfour Declaration is often referred to as the first official document proposing the creation of the later state of Israel. The organization called Palestine Action, which undertook the action, also wrote that the British promised the Jews the land to which they would never have had the right.
The British portal knows that the painting hanging on the wall of Cambridge University is the work of a certain painter Philip Alexius de Laszlo.
He is none other than László Fülöp Elek Lombosi of Hungarian origin.
The artist was born in Pest in 1869, under the name Fülöp Laub, and took the name László only in 1891, for patriotic reasons. He was one of the greatest painters of his time, known primarily for his portraits of kings, queens, nobles and prominent public figures, but he also painted Hungarian rural life and the locations of his travels. According to its Wikipedia page:
- In 1899, Emperor Franz Joseph sat as a model for him,
- and a year later XIII. His portrait of Pope Leo in the Vatican won the big gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition.
- In 1900, Queen Victoria asked him to paint a portrait of her favorite general, Sir George White,
- this year he also painted members of the German imperial family.
He settled in London in 1907, where an exhibition of his works opened at the Society of Arts in the same year, and shortly afterwards he received an invitation to paint members of the British royal family. In 1908 he traveled to the United States to paint a portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt, which was later followed by requests from Presidents Coolidge, Hoover and Harding.
BREAKING: Palestine Action spray and slash a historic painting of Lord Balfour in Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Written in 1917, Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do. pic.twitter.com/CGmh8GadQG
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) March 8, 2024
Cover image: A protester destroys the image (Source: Twitter video clip)
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