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🇧🇪 Belgium /Crime & Justice

Vandal damages Beringen mine cathedral’s light installation

From VRT NWS · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • An unknown person removed 10 of the 80 LED strips from the Cloisterama installation at Beringen’s mine cathedral in Belgium.
  • Security footage showed someone arriving by bicycle at 4:15 a.m. on August 18 and taking the strips.
  • Dean Rik Segers said restoring the installation will be expensive; the full artwork cost about €123,000.

Ten colorful LED strips have been pulled from the pointed arches of Beringen’s mine cathedral, leaving a dark gap in the Cloisterama light installation.

But on Monday morning I noticed that 10 of the 80 strips had been taken. There is now a dark spot.

· Rik SegersThe dean described how the damage was discovered.

The vandalism affected 10 of the installation’s 80 strips. Dean Rik Segers said the cathedral noticed the damage on Monday morning and reviewed its security camera footage.

The footage showed someone arriving by bicycle at 4:15 a.m. on August 18. The person removed the strips and took them away.

We reviewed the camera footage. On August 18, at 4:15 in the morning, someone arrived by bicycle, loosened the strips and took them.

· Rik SegersThe dean explained what the security footage showed.

Scottish artist David Batchelor installed the LED strips on the cathedral’s distinctive arches in 2023. Their colors match the building’s unusual stained-glass windows. Segers said the cathedral will try to repair the installation, but it expects the work to cost a great deal and is waiting for a quotation. Cloisterama originally cost about €123,000.

We will now try to restore the installation, but that will be a huge cost. We are waiting for a quotation.

· Rik SegersThe dean discussed the planned repair.
About this summary

Originally published by VRT NWS in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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