By: Jessica Jin

On May 30th, 2022, a 36-year-old man went to the Louvre Museum disguised as an old woman. He threw a piece of cake at a famous work of art painted by Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa.

He was charged by security and when he was being pulled away, in French, he said- “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,”. He did this to show us that we care about the Mona Lisa being destroyed. But we don’t seem to be caring about the world we are destroying by all of the pollution and fossil fuels we are burning.

Fortunately, the Mona Lisa was not ruined, because the painting has a bullet proof glass cover. And that wasn’t the first time someone tried to destroy the Mona Lisa. On August 21st, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, a museum worker, stole the Mona Lisa, making it even more famous.

The 1911 theft was the first of five attempts to steal or destroy the piece. The main reason security put up the built proof glass case was because in 1956 a Bolivian man threw a rock at the painting, damaging Mona Lisa’s left arm. Because of such attempts, the Mona Lisa was given more protection.

Then in 2009, a Russian woman threw an empty teacup at the famous painting, angrily, because she was frustrated that she couldn’t get a French citizenship. It didn’t damage the painting, but it still scratched the bolt proof glass. The Louvre Museum, which holds thousands of important works of art, now has very high security, to make sure that no one tries to damage it.

The Mona Lisa is very famous because it is an important masterpiece. Being made in 1504 by Leonardo De Vinci, made it more impressive. And because it first got stolen, it made it even more famous. But not only that, the Mona Lisa is worth 100 million dollars. So all of that made it an even bigger target.

Sources: Why I’m mad at the Mona Lisa attacker… – YouTube, Man detained after throwing cake at Mona Lisa _ NPR.pdf, Google