Two climate activists threw soup at the glass protecting the famed Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre Museum in Paris while shouting slogans advocating for a sustainable food system.
Video posted to social media shows two women with the words “Riposte Alimentaire” written on their t-shirts passing under a security barrier to get close to the painting before throwing soup at the glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Associated Press reports.
“What’s the most important thing?” they shouted. “Art, or right to a healthy and sustainable food?”
“Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they added.
Louvre employees could then be seen putting black panels in front of the Mona Lisa and asking visitors to evacuate the room. Staff told the BBC that pumpkin soup was sprayed on the painting by members of an environmental movement around 10 a.m. local time, but there was no damage to the artwork.
Paris police said two people were arrested following the incident.
BREAKING: Morons throw soup over the Mona Lisa. pic.twitter.com/JrgLj6zc4T
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 28, 2024
The display happened while French farmers protest against several issues, including low wages.
Riposte Alimentaire took credit for the attack on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
On its website, the group said the French government is breaking its climate commitments and called for the equivalent of the country’s state-sponsored health care system to be put in place to give people better access to healthy food while providing farmers a decent income, the AP states.
Angry French farmers have been using their tractors for days to set up road blockades and slow traffic across France to seek better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports. They also dumped stinky agricultural waste at the gates of government offices.
On Friday, the government announced a series of measures that farmers said do not fully address their demands. Those include “drastically simplifying” certain technical procedures and a progressive end to diesel fuel taxes for farm vehicles.
Some farmers threatened to converge on Paris, starting Monday, to block the main roads leading to the capital.
Back in May 2022 a man threw a piece of cake at the protective glass surrounding the famed painting in an apparent climate protest stunt.
The protester – a young man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair – attacked the glass and attempted to smash it on Sunday. One witness tweeted that the man proceeded to “smear cake on the glass, and throws roses everywhere” before being tackled by security.
Just execute a few of them, they will stop very quickly.
They need to be hung!!!
Ever notice how deranged all these protesters are ?Every one of them is violent in some fashion .You are not playing with a full deck for sure if you think protesting is ok . all it does is insight riots hate and destruction of others property . Lock all these nut jobs up and throw away the key may be then they will learn ,if you did not pay for it you do not get to destroy it period .
Just take the idiots out of the gene pool. I am sure the artist and Mona Lisa are upset.