A 41-YEAR-OLD MAN has been arrested by police in London over criminal damage to a portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
The portrait – which has been defaced with spray-paint – had been on display in the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey.
Scotland Yard said the man was taken to a police station in central London where he remains in custody.
The oil-on-canvas portrait – measuring 11 feet in width and 9 feet in height – had been on display for several weeks.
It has since been removed.
The campaign group Fathers4Justice said it understood that the man, and another person involved in the defacing of the portrait, were writing a message to the Queen begging for her assistance in securing father’s rights to mark Father’s Day this Sunday.
It said the two were members of the group, but that they were not participating in a formal or endorsed Fathers4Justice campaign.
The portrait, painted by artist Ralph Heimans, was based on a sitting with the Queen last year – placing her in a imaginary setting where she stands on the exact spot where she was crowned in 1953, while the Abbey is closed at night.
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