Watch: Man dressed as old lady smears cake over Mona Lisa
"Think of earth, artists think of earth. All artists think of earth. That's why I did it," man reportedly yells before...
In a shocking incident, a man dressed as an old woman jumped out of his wheelchair and allegedly smashed a piece of cake over Mona Lisa — the classical painting displayed at theLouvre Museum in Paris, France.
A video shows visitors capturing pictures of the ruined painting. The real artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, however, was not affected as the cake was smeared over the glass that protects the iconic painting.
Witnesses reported that the man abruptly hopped out of his wheelchair and threw his wig. He headed straight towards the Mona Lisa with a cake and smeared it all over the painting.
Security workers hurried to the site to remove him from the one of the most famous rooms in the world.
"Think of the earth, artists think of the earth. All artists think of the earth. That's why I did it," the man reportedly yelled before smearing cake on the painting.
He asked people to "think of the planet".
A Twitter user posted about the incident saying: "Maybe this is just nuts to me, but a man dressed as an old lady jumped out of a wheelchair and attempted to smash the bulletproof glass of the Mona Lisa."
India Times reported that the Mona Lisa had been vandalised before as well. In 1956, a man threw sulphuric acid on the painting damaging the lower part of the artwork. After that, the painting was protected behind bulletproof glass becoming one of the most well-protected artworks in the world.