6th Crown Prince Camel Festival Opens at Taif Camel Square

Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
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6th Crown Prince Camel Festival Opens at Taif Camel Square

Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

Held under the patronage of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, the sixth edition of the Crown Prince Camel Festival was set to kick off in Taif on Saturday.

The festival, organized by the Saudi Camel Federation, will be held at the Taif Camel Square for one month, from August 10 to September 10.

Preliminary rounds will last for 12 days.

A large number of local and international camel owners are competing in the Mafarid, Haqqa, Laqaya, Jatha'a, Thanaya, Heil, Zamoul and Soudaniyat categories for prizes that topping SAR56 million.

Throughout the festival, 610 races will be held: 360 in the preliminary rounds and 250 in the final stages.

Minister of Sport and Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee President Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal expressed his gratitude to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed for their support to the sports sector, in general, and camel racing, in particular, and for their dedication to preserving and enriching the Kingdom's cultural heritage.

Deputy President of the International Camel Federation, President of the Saudi Camel Federation and Vice Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee Prince Fahd bin Juluwi bin Abdulaziz bin Musaid also thanked the Crown Prince for patronizing the festival.



From Orange Peels to Bottle Caps: Thousands of Artists Create Their Own ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’

Rob de Heer talks next to his artwork, one of 60 pieces exhibited and inspired by the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," painting by Johannes Vermeer, at The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Rob de Heer talks next to his artwork, one of 60 pieces exhibited and inspired by the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," painting by Johannes Vermeer, at The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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From Orange Peels to Bottle Caps: Thousands of Artists Create Their Own ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’

Rob de Heer talks next to his artwork, one of 60 pieces exhibited and inspired by the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," painting by Johannes Vermeer, at The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Rob de Heer talks next to his artwork, one of 60 pieces exhibited and inspired by the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," painting by Johannes Vermeer, at The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

After sending its most famous work to be featured in Amsterdam’s blockbuster 2023 exhibition of nearly every work by Johannes Vermeer, the Mauritshuis museum found itself with a blank space where the iconic “Girl with a Pearl Earring” had been displayed.

The Hague-based institution turned to more than 2,700 artists, from Texas to Ukraine, from age 7 to 70, who created their own interpretations of the 17th-century masterpiece.

A selection of 60 works using materials ranging from orange peels to bottle caps to sweatshirts were exhibited in the museum while the painting was on loan 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the north.

“The submissions continue to come, it will never end with her,” Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis museum, told The Associated Press, pointing to the ongoing popularity of works featuring the mystery girl.

A 2020 investigation into the painting using a battery of modern imaging techniques uncovered details about Vermeer's methods and the makeup of his pigments, but not the young woman’s identity.

“I bring together the original The Girl with a Pearl and the face of a Wayang puppet,” artist Rob de Heer told the AP, standing in front of a screen in the museum’s foyer where all of the winning submissions are displayed.

De Heer, who primarily works with mixed media, wanted to take an image from the Golden Age history of the Netherlands and combine it with one evoking its colonial legacy. Wayang puppets are a traditional form of theater in parts of Indonesia, which was ruled by the Netherlands until 1949.

His surrealist work is followed in the rolling display by a piece featuring the original girl’s face superimposed on an antique tea tin.

Other submissions include works by South Korean artist Nanan Kang, who used an ear of corn for the face; Georgian artist Nino Kavazauri, who reimagined a modern girl waiting at a bus stop with a cup of coffee; and Simon Chong, a Welsh animator, who works on the popular television series “Bob’s Burgers” and created a girl in the show’s cartoon style.

The winners were displayed in a replica frame in the exact spot where “Girl with a Pearl Earring” usually hangs, between two portraits by Dutch Baroque painter Gerard ter Borch.

The popularity of the first competition prompted a second round and those submissions are now on display at the Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam. The museum continues to feature submitted works of art on its Instagram page.

Gosselink, who has been the museum’s director since 2020, said the breadth and depth of the works made it difficult to select who would be featured in the exhibition.

“I would dare to say that some of the ones we selected are new pieces of art, and they would be served very well in a new surrounding, like a museum," Gosselink said.