Van Gogh Museum turns into beauty salon to protest Dutch COVID closures

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam transformed its galleries into a beauty salon on December 19, 2021, protesting Dutch government measures that forced cultural venues to close while allowing hair salons, beauty centers, and gyms to remain open. The protest was sparked by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and the worsening health situation. Museum staff set up a long table with nail files, polishes, and tools, and beauticians decorated clients' nails with cherry blossoms and starry nights inspired by Van Gogh's masterpieces, all while the artworks remained on the walls. Director Emilie Gordenker stated, 'A visit to the museum is safe and just as important as going to a beauty salon, perhaps more so. We ask the government only to be consistent... establish rules so that everyone understands them. Right now it's not like that.' The protest was not isolated: the De Balie debate center in Amsterdam rebranded as a religious institution called the Philosophical Society, the Community of Reason; the Mauritshuis in The Hague, home to Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, turned into a gym; and the Limburgs Museum in Venlo organized a Zumba day. The action echoes debates in Italy during the pandemic about the logic of keeping theaters closed while shops and malls remained open.