In Paris on Sunday morning, two activists doused the bulletproof glass that protected the Mona Lisa with soup, adding their act – which did no harm to the masterpiece – to the list of activities that movement ecologists have carried out in museums in recent years.
The work suffered no damage, the Louvre Museum told AFP, saying that the Salle des Estates, where the painting is on display, had reopened to visitors after being closed for about an hour. The largest museum in the world plans to file a complaint on Monday.
What is important? What is more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food? Our agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work. One in three French people do not eat all their meals every day, said the activists, who stood on either side of the table after tossing the soup, an AFP journalist noted.
They were then arrested, AFP learned from police circles. According to the Louvre, they had hidden the pumpkin soup in a coffee thermos. The food is accepted at the entrance to the restaurant.
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The two environmental activists are members of the “Riposte Alimentaire” collective, which aims to initiate radical changes in society on a climatic and social level.
Photo: Getty Images / AFP/ DAVID CANTINIAUX
The museum tried to ban visitors from eating in the past, but decided against it, in part because it can be purchased inside.
The Mona Lisa, like our heritage, belongs to future generations. No reason could justify targeting him, condemned Culture Minister Rachida Dati on X.
I'm not sure the Mona Lisa is the biggest polluter in France. What does that mean?, denounced government spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot on the France 3 television channel.
The famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been presented behind armored protective glass since 2005, has been the victim of vandalism several times. In May 2022, for example, he became the target of a cream cake.
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Mona Lisa was desquamated in May 2022. As with the soup, the cream had ended up on its protective glass.
Photo: Twitter screenshot @LukeXC2002
This time the act was claimed in a press release sent to AFP by a collective called Food Riposte, which presented itself as a French civil resistance campaign aimed at bringing about radical change in society at a climatic and social level.
It follows the Last Renovation campaign, which has called for several strong measures in recent months to demand a thermal renovation plan for buildings that meets the urgency.
This time, the soup being thrown at the Mona Lisa is presented as the start of a civil resistance campaign that represents a clear demand that benefits everyone: social security for sustainable food.
Targeted museums
For several years, a series of militant operations have targeted works in museums around the world.
In October 2022, two young women wearing T-shirts that read “Just Stop Oil” projected the contents of two cans of tomato soup onto Van Gogh's masterpiece “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London before sticking to the wall and shouting : “Which is worth more?” Art or life?
This painting was also protected by glass.
In other museums, activists stuck their hands on a Goya painting in Madrid, smeared red and black paint on the Plexiglas cage surrounding Degas's “Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” in Washington, or spread mashed potatoes on a Claude Monet masterpiece in Potsdam, near Berlin.
More broadly, civil disobedience movements have also recently disrupted sporting events or blocked traffic in Western countries to denounce inaction by governments and the business community.