PARIS, FRANCE – Two environmental activists from the group Riposte Alimentaire threw soup at Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Musée du Louvre today, demanding “healthy and sustainable food” during a weekend of agricultural protests in Paris.
The celebrated portrait, which has been protected by security glass for the past 70 years, was not damaged in the attack. The activists were arrested and the museum said it would lodge a complaint.
Rachida Dati, the French Minister of Culture, said in a statement that “no cause could justify [the Mona Lisa] being attacked.” She added that the painting belongs “like all our heritage, to future generations.”
The soup attack came just over two months since climate activists from the pressure group Just Stop Oil made a hammer attack on Diego Velazquez’s The Toilet of Venus at the National Gallery in London.
