A man smeared the iconic Mona Lisa painting with cake at Paris' Louvre Museum on May 29. A video of the incident is being widely shared on social media.
The person was disguised as a woman in a wheelchair, according to a report in Marca newspaper. Witnesses said he suddenly got up and splashed cake on the painting, which was fortunately unharmed because it is encased in protective glass.
“Think about the Earth! We’re destroying the Earth! Artists need to think about the Earth! That’s why I did it," the man shouted.
This clown dressed an as old lady in a wheelchair caked the Mona Lisa screaming: “think about the Earth! We’re destroying the Earth! Artists need to think about the Earth! That’s why I did it.”NFTs fix this! pic.twitter.com/yijTW8ySAh
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— Farokh (@farokh) May 30, 2022
The perpetrator was removed from the building by security guards. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers continued taking photos of the painting.
This is not the first time that Leonardo da Vinci's legendary painting has been attacked.
In 1950s, a visitor had poured acid on the painting, after which it was put behind bulletproof glass.
Mona Lisa, believed to be the painting of an Italian noblewoman named Lisa Gherardini, is considered a masterpiece of Italian renaissance. It has been described as the "most visited, most written about, most sung about, most parodied work of art in the world".
The painting is one of the world's most valuable works of art. Before its 1962-1963 tour, Mona Lisa was assessed for insurance at $100 million.
