A man disguised as an elderly woman attacked the iconic Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre in Paris on Sunday.
Art lovers at the museum were shocked after what appeared to be an elderly woman suddenly jumped out of her wheelchair, rushed towards Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, and smeared cake cream on it.
The perpetrator, who turned out to be a young man wearing a wig, was swiftly detained by security.
As the guards were escorting him out of the room, he shouted in French: “Think of the Earth. Artists think of the Earth. All artists think of the Earth. That’s why I did it.”
The Mona Lisa portrait, which was created by da Vinci between 1503 and 1519, was never in any real danger during the apparent ecological protest because it is protected by thick bullet-proof glass.
The screen was installed after an incident in 1956 when the lower part of the artwork was seriously damaged by a vandal, who doused the painting with acid.
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Staff at the museum swiftly removed the cake cream from the protective glass and normal service was resumed at the Louvre.
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