In Paris, at the Louvre Museum, a man threw a piece of cake into the glass of the painting "Mona Lisa". The museum has filed a complaint against him for public humiliation, and the man says it was an "environmental protest."
This was reported by the French newspaper Le Parisien.
The incident occurred on Sunday, May 29, at noon. The man involved in the incident was detained on the spot and handed over to the police. He is known to be 24 years old, as well as the fact that the police took him to a psychiatric hospital, where they will have to determine whether his health condition is compatible with detention.
It seems unreal to me, but a man dressed as a grandmother got up from a wheelchair and tried to break the protective glass of the Mona Lisa. He then spread the cake on the window and scattered roses around him before the guards grabbed him," the Twitter user wrote.
The man said that with his gesture he wanted to draw attention to the environmental crisis: "Think of the Earth. There are people who destroy the earth. Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the earth. Thatʼs why I did it. Think of the planet,” the man shouted as he was being led to the exit.
The painting "Mona Lisa" was the subject of several attempts to damage it. One of the last dates back to the summer of 2009 when a Russian tourist threw a cup into a protective glass. The painting from 2005 is behind the armored glass, which controls humidity and temperature.