A 36-year-old man, disguised as an elderly woman in a wheelchair, tried to vandalize the Mona Lisa by smearing the portrait’s glass with cake in an attempted climate protest against artists for not focusing on the ‘planet’.
He reportedly attempted to break through the bulletproof glass that protects Leonardo da Vinci's iconic work in the Louvre Museum. According to museum officials, the caking did not destroy the painting.
As the security led the man away, he shouted in French, “Think about the Earth. There are people who are destroying the Earth. Think about it ... all artists, think about the Earth — this is why I did this. Think about the planet.”
It is not the first time the Mona Lisa was attacked. It has happened twice before, once in 1956 a man threw a stone at the painting and in 2009, a woman threw a ceramic cup at it. Yes, some people love to hate that smile.
Climate change
From prolonged droughts to intense heatwaves, the world faces several long-term changes in weather and temperature patterns due to climate change.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, there is a 50:50 chance that the average global temperature might temporarily reach above 1.5°C between 2022 and 2026, with one year becoming the warmest on record.
