Man Throws Pastry at Mona Lisa, Smearing Cream on
Glass Case
The painting was not harmed and the man, who officials
said was in a wheelchair and had faked a disability to get close to it, was
taken into custody.
The protester faked a disability to get close to the
painting before throwing a pastry at it, smearing cream on its glass case. The
painting was not damaged.
By Daniel
Victor and Maria Cramer
May 30,
2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/30/world/europe/mona-lisa-pastry-louvre.html
Luke
Sundberg and three of his friends were in line inside the Louvre in Paris on
Sunday, waiting to pose for a photo in front of the Mona Lisa, when they heard
gasps.
A man
dressed as a woman had sprung from a wheelchair and ducked under a rope barrier
separating the painting from the crowd of about 100 people.
The
visitors watched in disbelief as he began pounding on the glass that shields
the painting. Then, Mr. Sundberg said, the man smeared what appeared to be cake
all over the glass protecting what is one of the world’s most recognizable
pieces of art.
“I was in
awe,” said Mr. Sundberg, 20, a first-year student at Colby Community College in
Kansas. “It’s something so historic that seems untouchable.”
The
protester, whom officials have not named, faked a disability to get close to
the Mona Lisa, according to the Louvre. The painting was not damaged, museum
officials said.
Mr.
Sundberg said he and his friends posed with the painting after the glass was
cleaned and then they began to leave the museum. On their way out, he said,
they saw the man, who looked straight at Mr. Sundberg as he recorded him with
his phone.
“He threw a
whole bunch of roses at me and then he started yelling,” he said.
Videos on
social media showed that the man, speaking in French, yelled that there were
“people who were destroying the planet” and “that’s why I did it.”
The Mona
Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century and perhaps the crown
jewel of the Louvre’s collection, is typically swarmed by camera-wielding
tourists. The painting is held behind a thick glass case, an effective shield
against pastries.
After the
man smeared the glass, he was tackled by security guards, Mr. Sundberg said.
The Louvre
said in a statement that officials with the museum had followed its usual
procedures for people with reduced mobility, “allowing them to admire this
major work of the Louvre.”
Once he was
near the painting, the man threw the pastry that he had hidden, the museum
said.
Security
guards seized the man and escorted him out before handing him over to the
police, the museum said. The museum filed a complaint, officials said.
There have
been several attempts to vandalize the painting, some more successful than
others. In 1956, a man threw a stone at the painting, shattering a glass shield
and scratching Mona Lisa’s left elbow, causing a chip of paint to fall off.
The man
initially said he had no real reason to commit the act.
“I had a
stone in my pocket and suddenly the idea to throw it came to my mind,” the
police quoted him as saying. He later said he was jobless, had no money and
simply wanted to be jailed during the cold weather.
Steve
Keller, a museum security consultant who has worked with the National Gallery
of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and other museums, said such episodes
happen “more often than we hear about.”
Vandalism
“is one of the top three concerns we have,” he said, adding, “We do take steps
to prevent it, but it’s not really predictable.”
Mr. Keller,
who has worked in museum security since 1979, said he used to see cases like
this once a year at the Art Institute of Chicago. He has found lipstick on
paintings and handprints on portraits, and he once stopped a man from painting
a piece of art that he claimed was his and not finished.
Mr. Keller
said that many museums did not want to place paintings in protective glass
because it diminished the experience for museum visitors.
But the
Mona Lisa is a predictable target, Mr. Keller said. In 1911, it was stolen by
three Italian handymen and recovered 28 months later. In the 1950s, a visitor
attacked it with acid. In 2009, a woman threw a teacup at its glass.
People who
engage in such stunts usually just want to get on television, said Stevan
Layne, the founding director of the International Foundation for Cultural
Property Protection and a former director of security at the Denver Art Museum.
He said
that such acts of vandalism carried out by demonstrators have nothing to do
with the issues they are trying to call attention to. “They’re not
really accomplishing anything,” Mr. Layne said.
Daniel
Victor is a general assignment reporter based in London after stints in Hong
Kong and New York. He joined The Times in 2012. @bydanielvictor
Maria
Cramer is a breaking news reporter on the Express Desk. @NYTimesCramer
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