Police end Balfour portrait damage investigation

Palestine Action said the activist "ruined" the portrait by spraying it with red paint and slashing it

A police force has confirmed it will take no further action after an activist attacked a portrait of a politician linked to the creation of Israel.

The Palestine Action activist slashed the 1914 painting of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge, on 8 March 2024.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: "A thorough investigation was carried out but the investigation has now been filed pending any new information coming to light."

In a statement, Trinity College said it "continues to condemn this act of vandalism in the strongest terms".

It continued: "Trinity College will continue to cooperate with the police in the event further evidence becomes available so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.

"The portrait of Lord Balfour by Philip Alexius de László is undergoing restoration"

Footage of the attack was posted on social media. The activist also sprayed the portrait with red paint.

Lord Balfour was foreign secretary in 1917 when a declaration was made pledging Britain's support for the establishment "in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", seen by some historians as a starting point for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

At the time, Palestine Action said, in a statement: "Palestine Action ruined a 1914 painting by Philip Alexius de László inside Trinity College, University of Cambridge, of Lord Arthur James Balfour - the colonial administrator and signatory of the Balfour Declaration."