The world-famous Mona Lisa painting was attacked by a visitor to the Louvre on Sunday. That writes the Spanish daily ‘El Pais’. The work of artist Leonardo Da Vinci was undamaged thanks to a glass display case that protects the painting.
According to a visitor, who tells his story on Twitter, the unknown man first tried to destroy the display case. When that didn’t work, he threw the cake to the canvas and spread it over the glass panel. Then he sprinkled roses before he was knocked to the ground by security.
The museum in Paris has not yet responded to the attack.
A video shows the perpetrator addressing the visitors in French as he is taken away by security. Among other things, he shouts: “Some people are trying to destroy the earth, think of the earth!”
It is not yet clear what the man’s motive was and how he smuggled the cake into the museum. Visitors say the man disguised himself as an old lady and rode through the museum in a wheelchair before committing the attack.
Stolen
It is not the first attack on Da Vinci’s work, according to the Spanish newspaper. In August 2009, a tourist threw a cup of tea at the Mona Lisa, which then shattered the display case.
In 1974, when the work was on display at the Tokyo National Museum, a woman used a red spray, but it did not damage the painting. In 1956 there were two more attacks: in the first one, a man threw acid at the canvas, damaging the lower part. Later that year, a Bolivian painter threw a stone at the work, causing minor damage.
In 1911 the painting was already stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, who then hid the canvas in his apartment. The Mona Lisa was not recovered until two years later when Peruggia tried to sell the work to the world-famous Galleria degli Uffizi art museum in Florence, Italy.
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