Since July 2022, the gallery’s collection has been targeted on five occasions. JSO activists vandalised Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Constable’s The Hay Wain, and Diego Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus.
Pro-Palestinian activists from the group Youth Demand also pasted over Pablo Picasso’s Motherhood in October in protest at the sale of arms to Israel.
‘Worse than airport security’
But, after two years of attacks, the gallery brought in tougher guidelines for visitors on Friday morning, which caused long queues outside the gallery and confusion amongst tourists.
Visitors were urged to only bring essential items and not to take large bags.
Some tourists were forced to queue for over an hour, with those unaware of the new rules having to empty full bottles of water out on the floor outside the gallery.
Visitors were guided through security scanners before four members of staff checked the bags of hundreds of visitors. Any liquids in bags were pointed towards disposal in a black bin.
One visitor, Nina, described the queues as “worse than airport” security.
She said: “They need to sort this out. It’s wrong. I’m a member but I may not be after this.”
Another tourist reported being in “agony” from the pain of standing in the queue with a back injury. A third quipped: “Just ban tomato soup.”
A spokeswoman for the National Gallery said: “We are sorry it is taking longer than usual to access the Gallery and we apologise for this inconvenience.
“We also apologise that visitors are, for the time being, not receiving the welcome we would very much like to extend to them, but we hope that they understand why it has been necessary for us to do this.”