'Mona Lisa' Covered in Soup... Masterpieces Taken Hostage [Yeit Suda]

The world's most famous artwork, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1503), was vandalized last weekend. On the 28th (local time), two environmental activists demanding a shift in France's agricultural policy entered the Louvre Museum in Paris and poured soup on the Mona Lisa, demanding the right to healthy and sustainable food. Immediately after the act, they stood in front of the painting and shouted, "Our agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying while working," and "Which is more important: art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?"

On the 28th (local time), two female environmental activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
[Photo by AFP Paris - Yonhap News]

‘Masterpiece terrorism’ by environmental groups is not a new phenomenon. In June last year, two climate activists were arrested on the spot after applying red paint and attaching glued hands to Monet's work "The Artist's Garden at Giverny" (1900) exhibited at the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Earlier, in 2022, two members of the British environmental group Extinction Rebellion attracted media attention by gluing their hands with superglue to Picasso's work "Massacre in Korea" (1951) exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.

Their targets of vandalism are increasing day by day, matching the number of masterpieces in art history, including Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers," Gustav Klimt's "Death and Life," Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and Botticelli's "Primavera." The reason they obsess over masterpieces is that the shock effect can quickly draw media and public attention.

Activists argue that while preserving artworks is important, the Earth and environment must also be protected. They claim to use food items such as tomato soup or mashed potatoes that are not fatal to the artworks. They also emphasize that they carefully select protected works, so the damage is limited to frames, sculpture bases, or walls.

As eco-terrorism targeting masterpieces continues, 92 major museums worldwide issued a statement titled "Attacks on Museum Artworks," condemning, "Activists underestimate the vulnerability of irreplaceable works to damage. These works deserve to be preserved as world cultural heritage."

Perhaps due to growing public fatigue from repeated vandalism, Dana Fisher, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, USA, pointed out, "Strategic innovation and new methods attract media attention but do not always lead to changes in hearts and minds." The sincerity of activists who do not hesitate to damage masterpieces to appeal for the climate crisis is already being eroded by the sensational algorithm of vandalism and issue-making, gradually fading away. The fact that peaceful protests and campaigns have limited influence does not justify their acts of vandalism. Masterpieces, like the climate, are subjects humanity must protect, not hostages.