Man disguised as an old woman throws cake at the Mona Lisa in Paris
- Visitor to the Louvre museum in Paris threw a piece of cake at the world-famous Leonardo da Vinci painting
- The perpetrator, who was disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair, was taken to a psychiatric hospital
A 36-year-old man was arrested and placed in psychiatric care after he threw a piece of cake at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and shouted at people to think of planet Earth.
The treasured work by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been the target of vandalism attempts in the past, was unharmed in the Sunday incident thanks to its bulletproof glass case.
A Twitter user identified as Lukeee posted a video showing a museum employee wiping a mess off the glass and another showing a man dressed in white being escorted away by security guards.
“A man dressed as an old lady jumps out of a wheelchair and attempted to smash the bulletproof glass of the Mona Lisa. Then proceeds to smear cake on the glass and throws roses everywhere, all before being tackled by security,” Lukeee wrote.
Speaking French, the man says: “There are people who are destroying the Earth … All artists, think about the Earth. That’s why I did this. Think of the planet”.
Guards were then filmed cleaning the cake from the glass. A Louvre statement confirmed the attack on the artwork involving a “patisserie”.
The visitor had first pretended to be disabled in order to get a wheelchair and approach the work of art, a museum spokeswoman explained.
In this way, the museum enables people with limited mobility to admire the Louvre’s main work. When he was close enough he threw a cake, which had previously been kept hidden, at the display case containing the Mona Lisa, she said.
An inquiry into “an attempt to vandalise a cultural work” has been opened, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
The Mona Lisa has been behind glass since a Bolivian man threw a rock at the painting in December 1956, damaging her left elbow. In 2005, it was placed in a reinforced case that also controls temperature and humidity.
In 2009, a Russian woman threw an empty teacup at the painting, which slightly scratched the case.
The Louvre is the largest museum in the world, housing hundreds of thousands of works that attracted some 10 million visitors a year before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Agence France-Presse and dpa
