Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is undoubtedly some of the iconic work of all time. The world-famous masterpiece is housed within the Louvre Museum in Paris, the place it attracts numerous admirers from throughout the globe yearly. While the museum boasts a number of legendary artworks in its collections, the fascination for the Mona Lisa stays unmatched. It is maybe because of this that two protesters selected this portray so as to ship a message. According to reviews, round 10 am native time on January 28, 2024, two individuals threw pumpkin soup on the Mona Lisa. They crossed the barricade and gave a brief speech to the shocked onlookers.

_{The “Mona Lisa” was the goal of a ‘soup assault’ just lately. Photo Credit: AFP}

In video footage that has since gone viral, the 2 activists may be seen hurling orangish liquid on the portray. They may be heard asking “What is more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?” They added, “Your agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work”. They additionally recognized themselves as belonging to ‘Riposte Alimentaire,’ an environmental motion. Museum officers then descended on the scene, putting in boundaries in entrance of them. The Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned each activists had been detained.
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Small portions of meals are allowed contained in the premises of the Louvre, however guests are prohibited from consuming within the exhibition rooms. The museum revealed the protesters carried the soup inside a espresso thermos. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass. The Louvre has confirmed that the portray has suffered “no damage”. The room it’s displayed in was evacuated following the assault. However, it was rapidly cleaned up and reopened to the general public after round an hour.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati reacted to the assault on X. She wrote, “The Mona Lisa, as our heritage, belongs to future generations. No cause can justify targeting it”.

_{Mona Lisa Soup Attack: Museum officers say that the portray has not been broken. Photo Credit: AFP}

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Riposte Alimentaire (“Food counterattack”) has claimed official duty for the act. The group has referred to as it the “start of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand…: social security of sustainable food”. In a sequence of posts on X, it has defined its stance in additional element. “In France, one in three people cannot afford three meals a day. At the same time, 20% of food produced is thrown away. Our model stigmatises the most precarious and does not respect our fundamental right to food,” it wrote. Sunday’s motion comes as French farmers have been protesting for days to demand greater costs, decrease taxes and looser laws, reported AFP.
This isn’t the primary time da Vinci’s masterpiece has been focused. In 1956, a Bolivian man had thrown a rock on the portray, damaging the determine’s left elbow. It has since been saved behind a security glass, which was made bulletproof in 2005. In 2009, a girl hurled an empty teacup on the Mona Lisa, which barely scratched the case. In May 2022, a person threw a custard pie at her, saying artists weren’t focusing sufficient on “the planet”.
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