By: Matt Zhang

At the Louvre Museum in Paris, a group of tourists visits the expansive museum to see the Mona Lisa. As the crowd gathered around the Mona Lisa takes pictures and admires the painting, an old lady approaches in a wheelchair and proceeds to throw a piece of cake at the famous piece.

Despite how ridiculous this may sound, on May 22, 2022, to the shock of the visitors and guards a 36-year-old man disguised himself as a disabled older woman and threw a piece of cake at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa. The man claimed that he did this in order to bring awareness to the harming of the Earth stating, “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, the Mona Lisa was tucked under a protective layer of glass in anticipation of actions like this. In fact, there were many incidents that caused the security around the Mona Lisa to increase before this one. In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, a museum employee, was able to steal the Mona Lisa and keep it for more than two years before he was discovered.

Another incident was when a visitor in the 1950s threw acid at the Mona Lisa and damaged the lower sections of the painting. After that, a bulletproof casing was placed around the Mona Lisa to protect it from any future incidents and attacks. Due to its hardness and its sturdiness, the glass was able to protect the Mona Lisa from many more future attacks. Sadly, this still hasn’t stopped people from at least attempting to harm the painting.

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/31/man-in-wig-throws-cake-at-glass-protecting-mona-lisa.html

https://www.grunge.com/591689/what-really-happened-when-the-mona-lisa-was-attacked/

https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/18/world/europe/mona-lisa-the-

theft/index.html#:~:text=In%201911%2C%20Leonardo%20Da%20Vinci’s,was%20recovered%20two%20years%20later.&text=An%20authenticated%20contemporary%20copy%20of,Madrid%20on%20February%201%2C%202012.