KLima activists threw soup on the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum in Paris. In a video clip spread on social media, two women can be seen throwing a liquid on the glass that protects Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, while chanting slogans for sustainable nutrition. You also pass through a security barrier to approach the sign.
„What's the most important thing?” The women screamed on the recording. “Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?” The agricultural system is sick. French farmers died while working. Louvre staff then placed blackboards in front of the painting and asked visitors to leave the room. The name of their movement „Riposte alimentaire” (German: „Food Counter-Strike”) was written on white women's T-shirts.
Police said that two people were arrested after the incident, and the Louvre Museum announced that criminal charges would be filed against them. The hall was immediately disinfected and cleaned and reopened to visitors an hour later. According to the museum, the activists hid the soup in a thermos cup for drinking coffee – small amounts of food are allowed in the Louvre, but cannot be eaten in the exhibition halls.
„Riposte alimentaire” is a group that emerged from the French movement „Dernière Renovation” (German: „Last Renovation”). The group said on its website that the French government had not adhered to its commitments on climate protection. She called for enabling people to have better access to healthy food, while at the same time ensuring a decent income for farmers. Farmers in France are currently demonstrating against rising costs and falling income.
French Government: Nothing can justify the attack
The campaign was met with incomprehension by Culture Minister Rachida Dati and government spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot. Dati explained in the X online service that the Mona Lisa, as a cultural heritage, belongs to „future generations.” Nothing can justify an attack on a work of art. „I'm not sure that the Mona Lisa is the biggest polluter in France,” Thevenot said on France 3 television. „What's the point of that?”
The most famous painting in the world, which has been presented behind protective glass since 2005, has already been the victim of vandalism several times. In May 2022, a cream cake was thrown at her. In other attempts in October 2022, soup was thrown over Vincent van Gogh's „Sunflowers” in the National Gallery in London, and shortly afterwards activists attached themselves to Goya paintings in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
King Francis I, who invited Leonardo da Vinci to visit France, bought the painting from him in 1518. In this way the work ended up in the royal collections, which had been on display in the Louvre since the Revolution. The picture's eventful history also includes its theft in 1911. It was not until two years later that it was found again and returned to its place in the museum.
