PARIS (AFP) —- Art world professionals have slammed recent attacks on famous paintings by climate protesters as "counterproductive" and dangerous acts of vandalism.

"Art is defenseless and we strongly condemn trying to damage it for whichever cause," the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague said in a statement.

It was in the Mauritshuis that Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece "Girl with a Pearl Earring" was targeted by climate activists this week by gluing themselves to the painting and adjoining wall and throwing a thick red substance.