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Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci remained intact after a man threw a piece of cake into a protective glass around a famous painting during an obvious climate stunt protest at the Louvre Museum.
The famous painting “Washington, crossing Delaware”, could sell at auction $ 20 million
A protester, a young man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair, attacked the glass on Sunday and tried to break it. One witness tweeted that the man continued to “smear the pie on the glass and throw roses everywhere” before he was taken over by security.
An employee of the museum cleans the glass that protects the Mona Lisa in the Louvre after a climate stunt protest on Sunday. (Credit: @Luke_sundberg_)
(Credit: @Luke_sundberg_)
The footage shows that the attacker was accompanied by museum staff together with a wheelchair. You can hear him say, “Think of the Earth, people are destroying the Earth” in French as he retreated, indicating an incident probably environmental motive.
The man was not immediately identified.
Shows a video on Twitter posted by other witnesses a museum employee cleans the glass as tourists watch and take photos and videos of the incident on their phones.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Mona Lisa has the highest insurance value for any painting in history. Although its value cannot be calculated, ArtNet estimates that if the painting is put up for auction, it could bring in up to $ 50 billion, as “Salvator of the World”, another work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, was recently sold for $ 450 million. The Mona Lisa, in addition to being a valuable work of art, also stimulates tourism, bringing the French economy up to $ 3 billion annually, according to ArtNet.
In addition to auction and economic values, the Mona Lisa is worth about $ 867 million, based on an estimate of $ 100 million conducted in 1967 adjusted for inflation.
The Louvre told Fox News Digital in a statement that a complaint had been filed in connection with the incident.
“The museum welcomes the professionalism of its agents, who responded immediately during the incident. He also reminds that the monitoring of national collections is the basis of their missions, ”the Louvre said in a statement translated from French into English.
Reuters contributed to this report.
