By: Angela Li
The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, lies under a layer of bullet proof glass in the Louvre Museum. Although there have been many attacks on the Mona Lisa, the most recent one was when a man dressed up as an old lady in a wheelchair and tossed a piece of cake at the Mona Lisa, and then proceeded to throw roses at the jaw dropped spectators.
As security dragged the disguised man out of the gallery, he called out to the surprised visitors in the gallery: “Think of the Earth! There are people who are destroying the Earth! Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.” Luckily for the residents of France, the Mona Lisa was not damaged at all except for a big white cake stain on the bulletproof glass. A staff member wiped it away, but not before tens and hundreds of people recorded and posted it everywhere.
Although no one knew who he was, the 36-year-old man was quickly detained and sent to a psychiatric unit. Sergio Migliaccio, a witness to the incident, said the man in a wheelchair was wearing a long wig amid the crowd of people there to see the famed painting. “All of a sudden the guy jumped from the wheelchair and, with a red rose between his lips, he climbed the fences and attacked the Mona Lisa with a cake,” Migliaccio said.
Sadly, it wasn’t the first time this 16th century masterpiece was vandalized or stolen. All the way back in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by a museum employee, who kept it for two years until he tried to sell it to an Italian art dealer who turned him in. The precious piece was soon recovered. In the 1950s, the Mona Lisa was damaged in an acid attack, causing the need for the bulletproof glass that now protects the Mona Lisa today. In 2009, when a woman was denied French citizenship, she got so angry that she took out a ceramic cup and tossed it at the painting. Thanks to the super strong glass, both the glass and the Mona Lisa remained unharmed.
Whether or not there will be more attacks in the future, one thing is for sure: the Mona Lisa will stay in the Louvre Museum for at least another half a century.