an action lasting a few seconds that got people talking

Sunday morning, while their collective joined the farmers’ movement, two environmental activists threw soup on the armored glass protecting “The Mona Lisa” at the Louvre. They explained their action by their desire to denounce “junk food”.

“What is most important ? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food”, declaimed the environmental activists of the “food response” collective, just after committing their misdeed, Sunday January 28. The soup has stained the armored glass, which protects The Mona Lisa since 2005, to denounce “a sick agricultural system”. The “food response” collective is one of the 50 environmental organizations which called to join the mobilization of farmers this same Sunday.

Not enough to raise eyebrows at the famous portrait of Mona Lisa, this is not the first time that people have attacked it. Already in May 2022, he was scalded, and in 2009, a Russian tourist threw an empty teacup at him. This is undoubtedly the price to pay when you are the most famous painting in the world, which 30,000 people come to admire every day.

More reactions than previous happenings

But this episode provoked more reactions than previous times. We can even say that we have not witnessed such collective hysteria since 1911, when the portrait was stolen. This disappearance had sparked many denunciations and fake news, since even Apollinaire and Picasso had been suspected, before the real identity of the thief was discovered. It was an Italian glazier, who had only received 18 months in prison, the Italian press having praised his patriotism.

We do not know what the environmental activists who “destroyed” the found jewel will be sentenced to. The penalties incurred for damage to works of art can be up to 7 years in prison and 100,000 euros in fines. Although there was no material damage, many voices on social networks called for harsh sentences against these “pseudo-ecological activists who harm their cause by taking art hostage”. Others, on the contrary, defend themselves, affirming that art certainly makes life more beautiful, but it is precisely life and nature through it that must be defended at all costs.

We start daydreaming about what Leonardo da Vinci would have posted on Twitter or Instagram. Because he was a vegetarian who copied the wings of bats to design his inventions, a biodiversity enthusiast who spoke of the earth as a “land machine”, in which everything is held together, and where everything is essential, including the smallest of beings. Leonardo invited men to explore nature, because that is where their future lies. Would he have called this squirt of soup “legitimate bloodshot” ? Imagining her response, the Mona Lisa would surely let herself smile.