Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is arguably the most famous painting in the world, with thousands trying to glance at the portrait of the Italian painter every day inside the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris. An invaluable work of art that has enchanted the public for centuries, the painting has “lived” its own adventures, with its visitors Louvre, today, have to observe the enigmatic smile of “La Joconde” through a bulletproof glass case – a direct consequence of the attacks on the legendary work of art in recent decades.
The times when the legendary Mona Lisa fell “victim” of an attack
According to Mental Floss, the painting was damaged twice in 1956. In one of these two cases, Ugo Ungaza Villegas, a Bolivian, threw a stone at his masterpiece. Da Vinci, tearing a piece of pigment from the image. This attack took place a few months after a woman tried to throw acid on the portrait, succeeding only in the lower part of the painting. These incidents prompted the Louvre to place bulletproof glass around the “Mona Lisa”, which managed to save the painting in two more cases in the decades that followed.
The vandalism of Ugo Ungaza Villegas warned the Louvre workers that the glass case that surrounded the “Mona Lisa” at the time was obviously not strong enough to keep away any future vandalism. It is noteworthy that the Bolivian stone broke and still had enough power to destroy the painting on the left elbow of the portrait, which was then painted.
The new bulletproof glass case shielded the painting on at least two more occasions after 1956. In 1976, when the painting was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, a disabled woman threw red paint at the case to protest policy that forbade people with disabilities to admire Da Vinci’s masterpiece up close, reports grunge.com.
The most recent attack on the world’s most famous painting took place in 2009, when an anonymous Russian visitor threw a ceramic mug at “Mona Liza». The culprit said he was upset because his application for French citizenship had been rejected. The mug, apparently bought at the Louvre gift shop, broke on the bulletproof glass case. The conflict was so strong that the floor was filled with its crushed pieces, which were immediately wiped out, without the room being closed to the public after the Russian was arrested. Since then, no one else has tried to damage the masterpiece, although its worldwide popularity certainly makes it a target.
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