Activists Sling Soup on Mona Lisa

Two female demonstrators aiming to raise awareness regarding food security and the plight of French farmers on January 28 entered the Louvre in Paris and flung soup at the Mona Lisa. Ducking under the wooden barrier separating the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece from the crowds that throng the museum daily to see it, the pair stripped off their jackets to reveal T-shirts printed with the phrase “Riposte Alimentaire,” which translates to “Food Retaliation” in English. “What’s the most important thing,” the women cried in French.

“Art, or the right to healthy, sustainable food? Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work.” A widely circulatedvideoshows that as the duo spoke, members of the Louvre’s security team swiftly brought in screens to shield the pair from public view. The Associated Press reported that the women were arrested shortly thereafter.

It is unclear what charges they will face, as the painting, which is behind armored glass, was undamaged by their actions, according to multiple reports.RelatedCARL ANDRE (1935–2024)WHITNEY BIENNIAL ANNOUNCES ARTISTS FOR 2024 EDITION The environmental group Riposte Alimentaireclaimed responsibilityfor the attack, which it cast as an effort to bring attention to global food security and the environmental consequences of current agricultural practices, and to the financial pressures under which French farmers, competing with cheap imports, find themselves. The protest preceded by a day the staging oforganized tractor blockadesacross Paris and is part of a broader movement by agricultural producers across the country seeking more money for their products, a reduction in red tape, and increased protection against imports. Riposte Alimentaire, like Just Stop Oil—two of whose memberssoakedVan Gogh’s 1888Sunflowerswith soup at London’s National Gallery in 2022—is part of theA22 Network, which seeks to end climate change through peaceful civil resistance..