Protesters throw soup at Mona Lisa painting in Paris

Protesters throw soup at Mona Lisa painting in Paris

(CNN) – The Mona Lisa painting was attacked with soup but did not appear to have been hit directly as it is protected by a transparent cover, public broadcaster France Info reported on Sunday morning.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the liquid attack.

The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre in Paris and has been attacked before. In 2022, a visitor smeared icing on the protective glass of the Renaissance painting.

Arguably the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece attracts millions of visitors every year who line up to pose with the small work of art, which stands just over 0.7 meters tall and less than 0.6 feet wide.

The enigmatic portrait is no stranger to both vandalism and theft. It was stolen by a Louvre employee in 1911, increasing its international notoriety, and the lower part of the canvas suffered an acid attack in the 1950s, prompting the museum to increase protective measures around the work, including bulletproof glass. In 2009, an angry woman threw a ceramic mug at the painting, breaking the mug but leaving the painting intact.

With previous reporting by Jacqui Palumbo