In spite of being attacked with cake frosting on Sunday, Mona Lisa is still donning her ambiguous, faintly amused smile.
She suffered no harm, except perhaps embarrassment.
A 36-year-old man dressed up as an elderly lady, with a wig and makeup, used a wheelchair at the Louvre Museum in Paris in order to get a closer look at the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting in the museum’s Salle des Etats.
The man was seen jumping up from the wheelchair, and he smeared cake frosting on the protective bullet-proof glass in front of the painting.
The incident was captured on video by a 20-year-old witness and posted to Twitter. The witness said the attacker also threw rose petals around the room before he was whisked away by museum security.
While being removed in front of stunned spectators, he spoke in French, saying, “Think of the planet. There are people who are destroying the Earth. Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.”
The pastry-thrower was arrested and sent for psychiatric evaluation.
It’s not the first time that the painting has been the object of vandalism or theft. She was stolen by a museum employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, in 1911, who hid her in his apartment in Paris, and then moved her to an apartment in Florence, Italy. He was eventually arrested and the artwork was returned to France in 1913.
She is protected by the bullet-proof glass because in 1950, she was attacked and slightly damaged by acid while on display in Montauban, France. In 2009, an angry visitor threw a ceramic cup at her, but failed to harm her.
The Mona Lisa refused to comment.