Two local weather activists hurled soup Sunday on the glass defending the “Mona Lisa” on the Louvre Museum in Paris and shouted slogans advocating for a sustainable meals system.
In a video posted on social media, two ladies with the phrases “FOOD RIPOSTE” written on their T-shirts might be seen passing beneath a safety barrier to get nearer to the portray and throwing soup on the glass defending Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.
“What’s crucial factor?” they shouted. “Artwork, or proper to a wholesome and sustainable meals?”
“Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they mentioned.
DAVID CANTINIAUX/AFPTV/AFP through Getty Pictures
The Louvre staff may then be seen placing black panels in entrance of the “Mona Lisa” and asking guests to evacuate the room.
Paris police mentioned that two folks had been arrested following the incident.
On its web site, the Meals Riposte group mentioned the French authorities is breaking its local weather commitments and known as for the equal of the nation’s state-sponsored well being care system to be put in place to present folks higher entry to wholesome meals whereas offering farmers an honest earnings.
Indignant French farmers have been utilizing their tractors for days to arrange street blockades and sluggish visitors throughout France to hunt higher remuneration for his or her produce, much less purple tape and safety towards low cost imports. In addition they dumped smelly agricultural waste on the gates of presidency places of work.
This isn’t the primary time the “Mona Lisa” has been focused by activists. In 2022, a person disguised as an aged woman in a wheelchair smeared cream cake on the portray. As soon as in entrance of the portray, he stood up and smeared the cake over the glass case that protects the Renaissance portray. The person threw roses as safety guards pounced on him.
“Take into consideration the Earth. There are people who find themselves destroying the Earth. Give it some thought,” the person mentioned in French as he was led away. “All artists, take into consideration the Earth — that is why I did this. Take into consideration the planet.”
Additionally in 2022, two local weather activists threw mashed potatoes at Claude Monet’s “Les Meules” after which glued themselves beneath the portray at Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. The portray was not broken through the incident.
Simply Cease Oil / Handout/Anadolu Company through Getty Pictures
At London’s Nationwide Gallery, environmental protesters threw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” portray in 2022. BBC Information mentioned the gallery had confirmed that the portray was coated by glass, so it wasn’t broken.
A local weather activist in October 2022 tried to glue his head to the enduring “Woman with a Pearl Earring” portray on the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Final yr, local weather activists turned the water of Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain black in protest of the fossil gas trade. Activist group Ultima Generazione mentioned that eight folks poured “vegetable charcoal” within the water as demonstrators pushed for an “rapid cease” to fossil gas subsidies.
