A visitor to the Louvre museum in Paris tried to break and smeared the surface that protects the Mona Lisa painting with frosting in what appeared to be an environmental protest.
According to the world-renowned museum, the man approached the Renaissance-era painting in a wheelchair and threw a piece of cake at its protective glass.
“A visitor simulated a disability in order to use a wheelchair to approach the work, which was installed in a secure display case. The Louvre applied its usual procedures for people with reduced mobility, allowing them to admire this major work of art,” the statement noted.
A Louvre spokesman later clarified that the museum allows people in wheelchairs to move in front of other museum-goers in order to better see the artworks.
Videos recorded and posted on social media by other visitors showed the suspect wearing a wig and lipstick.
Witnesses also claimed to have seen the man dressed as an elder woman while throwing roses in the museum gallery. He then lunged against the bulletproof glass of the world’s most famous painting.
In one video posted on Twitter, the protester is heard saying in French: “think of planet Earth, there are people destroying it.” He was then escorted by a security guard.
The frosting incident left a creamy stain on the surface of Leonardo da Vinci’s work. However, the Louvre museum wrote in the official statement that the individual’s act “had no effect on the painting, which was not damaged in any way.”
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the suspect had been arrested and is now under investigation for “attempting to damage a cultural asset” after the Louvre filed a complaint.
Authorities said the 36-year-old man had been transferred to a psychiatric infirmary at police headquarters.
The Louvre, considered the world’s largest museum, houses hundreds of thousands of works, including the enigmatic portrait painted by da Vinci.
The cake attack was not the first act of vandalism against the painting. In 2009, a Russian woman dropped a ceramic mug that slightly scratched the protective case after she was denied French citizenship.
