Two activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre on Sunday to protest against food security and protections for farmers. Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, mounted behind bulletproof glass, was not damaged, according to multiple reports.
“What’s the most important thing?” the women shouted in French to a crowd of onlookers after throwing soup on the painting. “Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?”
“Our agricultural system is sick,” they said. “Our farmers are dying at work.”
Videos and photos of the incident that went viral on Sunday morning showed the Mona Lisa's protective barrier covered in strips of orange soup. The Louvre did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Louvre security forces entered the Salle des Etats room where the painting is on display and video footage showed them warding off the women with black screens before removing them from the area. Paris police arrested two people after the incident, according to the Associated Press.
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The two activists appeared to be wearing white T-shirts with the black words “Riposte Alimentaire,” the name of a food security protest group took responsibility for the incident. “Riposte Alimentaire” roughly translates to “food reaction” in English.
In a translated one opinion In a post on Also the group required French citizens receive a ration card worth 150 euros per month.
“Farmers are being squeezed by the pressure of mass distribution, which is even causing them to sell at a loss,” the group said, according to a translation. “Our agricultural and food system also has extremely worrying consequences for the environment.”
Riposte Alimentaire is part of the A22 movement, a collection of protest groups such as Just Stop Oil, which made headlines in 2022 after pouring soup on Vincent van Gogh's painting “Sunflowers” at London's National Gallery Museum, leading to arrests and minor damage The frame of the painting.
The Mona Lisa incident occurred as French farmers protested for better protection from imports and higher wages for their production, according to the Associated Press.
Rachida Dati, France's Minister of Culture, said in an X post Sunday that no reason can justify an attack on the Mona Lisa.
“The Mona Lisa, like our heritage, belongs to future generations,” wrote Dati.
The Mona Lisa has been targeted by protesters in the past. In 2022, a man disguised as an elderly woman smeared the painting with a cake-like cream. More than a decade earlier, in 2009, a woman threw a ceramic cup at the painting. In 1956, the painting was hit by a rock and acid, prompting the museum to place it behind glass.