Visitors at Louvre look on in shock as Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece attacked by environmental protesters

Two environmental protesters have hurled soup on to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for “healthy and sustainable food”. The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged.

Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting, their right hands held up in a salute-like gesture.

One of the two activists removed her jacket to reveal a white T-shirt bearing the slogan of the environmental activist group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) in black letters.

  • @[email protected]
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    1910 months ago

    Name a better form of protest to get the people’s attention.
    Spoiler: They’ve tried that before.

    • @Coreidan
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      -310 months ago

      If you aren’t aware of climate change by now then you’re an absolute moron. I don’t see how soup is going to change anything

    • @Rapidcreek
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      -310 months ago

      The world is making progress in climate change. This isn’t going to make it go faster.

        • FaceDeer
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          -610 months ago

          Throwing soup on paintings discredits environmentalism to a lot of people. But what they should really be upset about is misleading graphs cherry-picked to look as alarming as possible.

          Sea ice is a concerning indicator, sure, but if you look at other news and other graphs about it you’ll not find anything like this gigantic drop. In particular in the section of that page about Antarctic ice:

          At the beginning of December, ice extents were at record low levels. However, the seasonal decline in Antarctic ice extent subsequently slowed. As a result, by the beginning of the new year, extent was only sixth lowest.

          It also notes that Arctic sea ice extents were typical during 2023, so whatever was happening to Antarctic ice wasn’t necessarily an indication of global trends.

          I am an environmentalist, I want to see continued effort being made on switching to renewable resources and ameliorating the effects of climate change. But I worry that a lot of environmentalists are crying wolf very loudly and it’s going to harm the movement in the long run when people realize how overblown some of these arguments are.

          • @[email protected]
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            9
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            10 months ago

            No one cares what people think about the movement in the long run.
            Having a long run is the goal.

            Personally, I think we have 20 years left in which we can pretend to do something against climate change (because nothing has actually been achieved, CO2-output keeps climbing, completely unaffected by this whole debate).
            By 2045, conditions around the equator will trigger a global migration north, then we’ll go back to bombing each other at large scale and all mitigation efforts are over.

          • Cethin
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            610 months ago

            They didn’t throw soup on a painting. They threw soup on glass that was in front of a painting. No paintings were harmed in this protest.

            • FaceDeer
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              110 months ago

              Okay, amend my comment to read “throwing soup at paintings.” Any other changes needed?

      • Spzi
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        910 months ago

        While continuing to tap new oil fields and failing to make sufficient progress. Also, this one isn’t about climate, but healthy and sustainable food. Connected issues, but still.

        All that aside, to come back to the somewhat dodged question, what would make things go faster?

        • @Rapidcreek
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          210 months ago

          That’s the good question. I’m not sure there is one. We ( the world) were slow off the ball on climate change and its not like we move like a power boat, more like a barge.

      • Cethin
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        -110 months ago

        Your reading comprehension is poor. This isnt about climate change. This is about food security.

        • @assassin_aragorn
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          110 months ago

          … So they threw away food to make a statement?

          This is like protesting pollution by purposely throwing oil into the ocean. Generally speaking the act of protest should not directly intensify the problem.

          • Cethin
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            510 months ago

            A can of soup dude. The trashcans at the Louvre have far more food waste than a can of soup. What larger good can be done with a single can of soup?

          • @[email protected]
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            310 months ago

            I mean it’s more like knocking over a barrel of water during a rainstorm to bring attention to the fact that people across the world don’t have access to clean water. There is more than enough food to go around in Paris, the problem is distribution and greed. You think donating a single can of soup would make a meaningful impact compared to getting on international news to spread your message?

        • @Rapidcreek
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          -310 months ago

          Random insult back atcha