Two environmental activists threw soup on the armored glass behind which the Mona Lisa is displayed at the Louvre in Paris on Sunday morning. This is what the AFP news agency writes. A collective called ‘Food response’ has claimed responsibility for one of the most famous paintings in the world. They defaced the painting to draw attention to “the right to healthy and sustainable food.”
On images that circulate on social media two activists can be seen throwing soup from behind the balustrade, which is supposed to keep visitors at a distance. Then they crawl under the balustrade to shout protest slogans. The Louvre then evacuated the room to clean everything.
In recent years, climate activists have taken several actions around world-famous works of art. At first they mainly did this by gluing themselves to it, but later the works of art were also smeared and defaced. The activists’ goal is not to damage the works of art, many groups say they only target works of art that hang behind glass.
The Mona Lisa has been targeted before: in 2009 someone threw a cup of tea against the glass and in 2022 a cream cake was thrown at it – although both actions had nothing to do with climate activism. The painting, which Leonardo da Vinci made in the early 16th century, has been behind glass since a man threw a stone at the canvas in 1956, damaging it.
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