Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile unchanged even after pumpkin soup attack

PARIS: Protestors hurled pumpkin soup on Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece 'Mona Lisa' painting at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday. The 16th-century painting escaped any damage as it was safely shielded by bulletproof glass. Two women threw the soup as part of a protest by French farmers demanding better wages and working conditions.

The two activists from the organization ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ said that their right to healthy and sustainable food is more important than art. Security personnel quickly evacuated the two from the museum after the incident. The museum authorities said that they would file a complaint against them.

• The Mona Lisa painting was stolen in 1911. Vincenzo Perugia, an employee of the museum, smuggled the painting out after hiding it overnight in a closet. The painting was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an antique dealer in Florence, Italy.

• In the 1950s, a visitor poured acid on the Mona Lisa.

• Bulletproof glass armour introduced in 2019

• In 2022, someone threw a cake at the painting