Two environmental activists threw soup this Sunday morning on the armored glass that protects "The Mona Lisa" in the Louvre, justifying their action by their desire to promote in particular "the right to healthy and sustainable food," a journalist from the AFP.
The most famous painting in the world, displayed behind protective glass since 2005, has already been the victim of vandalism on several occasions. In May 2022, for example, it was the target of a cream pie.
In addition to that slap and today's soup, Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work collects attacks: in 1956 a man with mental problems threw a stone at the painting that broke the protective glass of the work and caused the detachment of the painting. pictorial layer at the height of the left elbow of the Monna Lisa. These damages, despite the restoration, are still visible.
Bulletproof glass was then installed, which made it possible for the painting not to be damaged in another attack, this time with paint, thrown in 1974 by a woman when the painting was on display at the National Museum in Tokyo (Japan). The attacker was protesting against the museum's policy, which made it difficult for disabled people to access it.
It was then decided that La Mona Lisa would not leave the Louvre, but this did not stop a woman of Russian nationality from throwing the mug she had just bought in the museum shop at the painting in 2009 in protest at having been denied French citizenship. The canvas was not damaged.
Although it may generate rejection, this form of protest refers to the type of actions carried out by the suffragettes in Great Britain before the First World War, and which attacked 10 paintings, including a nude by Velazquez.
On March 10, 1914, a militant woman dressed in gray brought a kitchen ax into the National Gallery in London and repeatedly slashed Velázquez's Venus in the Mirror out of political revenge against the British government.
In recent years, numerous organizations, mostly environmentalists, have put the security of museums in check and have opened the debate on whether it is legitimate to attack emblematic works of art, which are heritage of humanity, with the excuse of attracting attention. and try to raise public opinion about pressing problems such as climate change or war.
The list of notable paintings that have suffered intentional attacks, apart from attacks on works of art in the context of wars and armed conflicts, is, sadly, immense. And it has been increasing in recent times.
2022 was full of these types of actions. Among them, a slap at the Mona Lisa in May. On July 22, some environmentalists glued their hands to Sandro Botticelli's 'Spring' in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (Italy). On October 14, tomato soup was thrown at Vincent Van Gogh's painting 'The Sunflowers' at the National Gallery in London. A few days before, two people glued their hands to Pablo Picasso's painting 'Massacre in Korea', in Melbourne (Australia). In those days, a painting by Claude Monet from the 'Racks' series, in a museum near Berlin, was also vandalized.
