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Two protesters threw soup at the bulletproof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting, the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre museum in Paris.
Sunday’s vandalism, which came as French farmers protested across the country, was the latest in a series of similar attacks on works of art to demand more action to protect the planet.
On Sunday morning local time, two women splashed streams of red and orange soup onto the glass protecting the painting, causing gasps from passersby.
“What is more important? “Art or right to healthy and sustainable food?” they asked, standing in front of the painting and speaking in turns.
“Their agricultural system is sick. “Our farmers are dying at work,” they added, before security staff placed black screens in front of them and evacuated the room.
A group called Riposte Alimentaire, which translates to “Food Counterattack,” claimed responsibility for the stunt.
In a statement sent to AFP, it is stated that the soup launch marked the “beginning of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand… for the social security of sustainable food.”
The action comes amid days of protests by French farmers, who are demanding better wages, taxes and regulations.
The French government has been trying to prevent discontent among farm workers from spreading in the months leading up to European Parliament elections, which are seen as a key test for President Emmanuel Macron’s faction.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was quick to announce new measures on Sunday as some farmers threatened to block roads to the capital.
custard cake
The action at the museum follows a series of such moves by climate activists against world-famous paintings to demand more action to phase out fossil fuels and prevent global warming.
In October 2022, two activists from the group Just Stop Oil made headlines when they sprayed tomato soup on the glass protecting Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
They complained that art lovers were more concerned about the paintings than the planet.
The Mona Lisa has been attacked several times before. A man threw a custard pie at him in May 2022 and also said that artists were not focusing enough on “the planet.” The thick glass casing of it ensured that it did not suffer any damage.
He has been behind glass since a Bolivian man threw a rock at him in December 1956, damaging his left elbow.
The glass was made bulletproof in 2005.
In 2009, a woman threw an empty teacup at the painting, slightly scratching the box.