Dutch activists use red spray paint on statue

Dutch activists have spray painted the words “killer” and “thief” and daubed red paint on a statue of a man from the 17th-century Golden Era of Dutch trade and colonial expansion

A municipal worker was removing the paint from the statue of Piet Hein in Rotterdam on Friday, amid a wave of vandalism on statues of historical figures in the United States and Europe

Hein is best known for leading a Dutch naval action in 1628 that captured a Spanish treasure fleet near Cuba. A group calling itself “Heroes of Never” in Dutch claimed responsibility, saying in a statement Hein was “a key figure in clearing the way for trans-Atlantic human trade in enslaved West Africans.” The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has sparked a re-examination of the actions of historical men, who often were exalted in the form of statues and other memorials.