If you’ve woken up today and thought, “Hm, the Mona Lisa should get cake thrown at it,” then it’s your lucky day.
That’s right, the Mona Lisa has had cake thrown at it overnight by a person who entered the Louvre in a wheelchair wearing a shake-and-go black bob wig and red lipstick.
Fret not, art lovers, because the Mona Lisa didn’t suffer any damage thanks to the protective glass that surrounds the artwork.
According to the ABC, the 36-year-old man who is believed to be the perpetrator of the cake throw was arrested and placed in psychiatric care. It is alleged that the reasoning behind the attack was to protest against artists who are not focusing enough on “the planet.”
While I understand the concern that artists are not doing enough to educate the masses on the current state of the world and the consequences we may (and have already started to) face, Leonardo Da Vinci has been dead for around 503 years.
I think it’s fair to say that he is forgiven for not focusing enough on the current environmental disarray we find ourselves in today, in 2022.
Yes, it does send a message to deface what is probably the most famous portrait in the world and hey, here we are writing about it, but there are so many other ways you can bring to light your message.
I’m still very confused as to why cake was chosen as the object to be thrown at the Mona Lisa and how the person managed to smuggle that in without getting it everywhere. I can barely smuggle outside food into the movies.
There are so many better things to do with cake-like eating it. Although maybe Mona Lisa was craving that slice of heavenly goodness. I would be too if I was painted 519 years ago.
The activist and cake-smearer also threw red rose petals around the room before they were confronted and eventually led away by the Lourve’s security guards.
In many tweets that have now gone viral, you can see the museum staff wiping off the cream from the protective glass as Mona Lisa looks on.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, as the perpetrator was being escorted out, he was filmed saying in French, “Think about the Earth. There are people destroying the Earth… all artists think about the Earth. That’s why I did it. Think about the planet.”
You can see the iconic painting covered in cake below which was recorded by Twitter user lukeXC2002.
Maybe this is just nuts to me💀but an man dressed as an old lady jumps out of a wheel chair and attempted to smash the bullet proof glass of the Mona Lisa. Then proceeds to smear cake on the glass, and throws roses everywhere all before being tackled by security. 😂??? pic.twitter.com/OFXdx9eWcM
— Lukeee🧃 (@lukeXC2002) May 29, 2022
This isn’t the first attack on the Mona Lisa which has apparently been subject to lots of vandalism over the years, hence the bulletproof casing that shielded the painting from the cake.
The glass was put around the painting after a man threw a rock at the Mona Lisa back in 1956 which resulted in damage to her left elbow. In 2009, a woman then threw an empty teacup at the paining, slightly scratching the bulletproof casing.
Having cake smeared across the Mona Lisa in a protest against artists not caring about the environment really is something I never thought I’d write about, but I’m not mad about it.