Two environmental activists have thrown soup onto the glass protecting the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris.
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A video clip posted on X showed the two women splattering the famous painting with a thick, soupy liquid to the gasps of the crowd of visitors.
One of them then removed her jacket to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan "Riposte alimentaire" (food fightback).
"What is more important, art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?" one of the women shouted.
"Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work," she said.
On its website, the Riposte alimentaire group said the French government is breaking its climate commitments and called for the equivalent of the country's state-sponsored health care system to be put in place to give people better access to healthy food while providing farmers a decent income.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said the Mona Lisa was "like our heritage".
"Nothing can justify it becoming a target," she wrote on X.
Museum staff erected black screens all around around the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, hiding the two activists, and cleared the room.
The Mona Lisa, which has been behind special protective glass since 2005, has been vandalised before.
Cream cake was smeared over it in May 2022.
with AP
Australian Associated Press
