Is implied by Gauss' law if Maxwell's equations: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/44418/are-the-maxwells-equations-enough-to-derive-the-law-of-coulomb
The "static" part is important: if this law were true for moving charges, we would be able to transmit information instantly at infinite distances. This is basically where the idea of field comes in.
Coulomb's Law experiment with torsion balance with a mirror on the balance to amplify rotations by uclaphysics (2010)
Source. 