The news of the visitor at the Louvre Museum who threw a cake at Da Vinci’s famous painting ‘La Gioconda’ was trending around the world. The man approaches the work after pretending to be a disabled person and even wearing a wig.
He seemed to have meticulously thought out his plan. In order to be allowed to take a picture between the cordon and the painting, a space reserved for disabled people, he disguised himself. After approaching the painting, he threw something like a cake and started shouting messages about caring for the planet. Obviously, the images went viral quickly .
For many, this was something that has never been seen before, but the reality is that this is not the first time that the ‘Mona Lisa’ has suffered an attack. In 1956 a man threw acid on the painting damaging the lower part of it. Later that same year, a Bolivian painter, Hugo Ungaza Villegas threw a stone at the oil painting causing slight damage.
Another attack happened in 1974 when the painting was exhibited at the National Museum of Tokyo, an unknown woman used red spray, but did not damage the painting as they were at a far distance.
Even so, the ‘Mona Lisa’ has not been the only work of art to suffer an attack.
‘The Night Watch’ – Rembrandt
As one of the most famous works in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and an iconic work by the Dutch painter, this work has been attacked three times.
In 1911, an exchef attacked the piece with a knife, but was unsuccessful, as he could not cut through the solid varnish.
In 1975, William de Rijk, an unemployed professor, claimed that Jesus had forced him to attack the work, justifying himself for having torn it on several occasions. William was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Although the painting was restored, traces of the cuts are still visible.
In 1990, a patient in a psychiatric facility escaped and doused the paint with sulfuric acid. Security guards acted quickly and diluted the acid with water, only the varnish was damaged.
‘Venus at Her Mirror’ – Diego Velázquez
In 1914, a member of a movement of women fighting for the right to vote called suffragettes stuck a butcher knife into the work at the National Gallery in London. Mary Richardson cut it seven times, but it was successfully repaired.
Mary explained that her intention was to protest the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst, a leader of the movement who had been arrested the day before. In an interview, she also explained that she hated the way the image of Venus naked was presented to men.
‘Pietà’ – Michelangelo
A Hungarian man named Lazlo Toth, in 1972, broke through the crowd of people waiting for the papal blessing in St. Peter’s Square and with a geologist’s hammer, struck several blows at Michelangelo’s Pietà.
The virgin lost an arm, an eye and part of her nose. As a result, the piece was reconstructed and is now protected by a bulletproof panel.
Witnesses say that as Lazlo destroyed the statue he shouted, ‘I am Jesus Christ!’
‘The Little Mermaid’ – Edvard Eriksen
One of the main tourist attractions in Copenhagen, Denmark, is undoubtedly the statue representing the character of the famous fairy tale ‘The Little Mermaid’. Unfortunately, since 1960 it has suffered several attacks, so they decided to move it away from the harbor and move it several meters to protect it from the public.
This bronze figure has been decapitated twice, once in 1964 and again in 1998; in 1999 an attempt to decapitate failed. In 1984 she lost her arm and in 2003 she was pulled from her base with explosives.
The sculpture has also been covered in paint or with graffiti as a way to protest by pro-democracy activists to anti-whaling campaigners and even denouncing racism in Hans Christian Andersen’s tales.
‘The Bay’ – Helen Frankenthaler
A 12-year-old boy stuck a piece of chewing gum on the canvas of the work when it was exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2006. Although the gum left a small mark, it did not mean permanent damage to the 1963 abstract painting valued at $1.5 million.
The boy was visiting the gallery on a school field trip and was suspended.