By: Lucas Chi

On May 29th, 2022, a man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair threw a chunk of cake at the world-famous Mona Lisa, which is located in the Louvre Museum. The Mona Lisa is an oil painting of a seated woman sitting in front of an imaginary landscape, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, a painter of the Italian Renaissance.

“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,” said the man. The man was apparently starting a climate protest. After the incident, the man was sent to a psychiatric unit, where he was detained. This was not the first time something like this has happened to the painting.

Leonardo da Vinci has not only painted the Mona Lisa but has also painted many other famous paintings such as the Last Supper and Virgin of the Rocks. The Italian renaissance was an era where the main art that was painted was about the beauty of humans and nature.

In 1911, the painting went missing for 2 years, but was recovered when someone tried to sell it to an Italian art dealer. And in the 1950s, it faced an acid attack, where a vandal threw acid at the bottom part of the painting. After a few more similar attacks, a bullet-proof glass was added to protect the painting.

An online video shows someone cleaning the protective glass after the incident. Many people are in the background, filming the incident’s aftermath with their phones.

Sources: npr.org

mymodernmet.com

louvre.fr

cbsnews.com

becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com

livescience.com