The Mona Lisa Attacks
Being one of the most, if not the most, iconic painting in the world has a way of making an artwork a target for vandals and attackers. People think that attacking the Mona Lisa will bring attention to them and to their cause. Maybe that’s why it’s been targeted so many times.
I’m not going to go into the background on the painting, you know it, and I covered it in my other post about the Mona Lisa being stolen in 1911 aaaaaand my post about the second and third Mona Lisas so check those out if you want a little refresher.
1956
This was an eventful year for this painting. It was attacked not once, but twice. It had had glass installed around it, thankfully, because a few years prior a man tried to cut it out of its frame and steal it. He claimed to be in love with it. Weirdly I could only find passing mentions of this occurrence in other sources so that’s literally all I know. Regardless, it was protected by a glass case following this incident.
Anyways, while Mona Lisa was travelling and on display in a museum in Montauban, France, a woman threw acid at it but luckily didn’t do any serious damage. Then, in December of 1956, the Mona Lisa was back at the Louvre and a Bolivian man threw a rock as hard as he could at the painting. He threw it so hard that he shattered the glass case surrounding the painting and dislodged a speck of pigment by her elbow. This had to be carefully and painstakingly restored.
These attacks meant that the museum really seriously stepped up their security and also preservation game for this painting specifically. In 1962, First Lady Jackie Kennedy asked the French minister for cultural affairs, André Malraux if Mona Lisa could be exhibited in the USA. At first, the French people were outraged, calling for the Americans to refuse the painting and a group of curators at the Louvre itself threatened to quit if this was approved. But Malraux ended up approving Kennedy’s request and arrangements had to be made to get the painting safely from France to Washington D.C.
It was shipped in a “custom made, temperature-controlled case within a fireproof and watertight container, and was kept under constant watch by security guards and museum officials” (Garcia-Fenech, 2014). It arrived in the New York harbour accompanied by the coast guard and there were representatives from all levels of government there to greet it. It was transferred to a temperature-controlled van and along the route to Washington all traffic was stopped and the escorted van drove through all red lights. It was exhibited at the National Gallery and the crowds that came to see it were so huge it’s estimated that each viewer only got to see it for about four seconds. More than 1 million people came to see it in person. A week after the exhibition closed Mona Lisa travelled safely back to her home at the Louvre where the new, bulletproof glass was installed around it.
1974
Just because security was increased didn’t mean that the attacks had stopped though. In 1974, Mona Lisa was travelling again and was on display in Tokyo, Japan in the Tokyo National Museum. More than 1.5 million people came out to see the painting in Tokyo which is still a record for a Japanese museum. On April 21, 1974, a woman entered the museum with red spray paint and sprayed it all over the glass enclosure, thankfully not damaging the painting. She was protesting the museum’s failure to provide access to the exhibit and painting for people who are disabled. Unfortunately, I don’t think this caused the museum to implement a more inclusive infrastructure.
2009
The most recent attack happened in 2009 when the Mona Lisa was, once again, back home at the Louvre. A woman entered on August 2, bought a mug from the gift shop and immediately walked into the room where the painting is displayed and hurled the mug at the glass enclosure. She threw it hard but it was no match for the bulletproof glass and the mug shattered but the painting was unharmed. Apparently so little damage was done that they didn’t even close the Mona Lisa room and just swept the floor and detained the culprit. Apparently, she was unhappy that her French citizenship application had been denied and this is how she decided to take out her frustrations.
Since 2009 no one has attempted to harm the painting but that doesn’t make it any less of a target for potential future attacks so the investment of the glass and the barrier so viewers can’t get too close, while a little obtrusive, ensures that Mona Lisa is safe.
Works Cited
Arguello, Toby. “What Really Happened When the Mona Lisa was Attacked”. Grunge. 2021. https://www.grunge.com/591689/what-really-happened-when-the-mona-lisa-was-attacked/
Garcia-Fenech, Giovanni. “The Travels and Travails of the Mona Lisa”. Artstor. 2014. https://www.artstor.org/2014/12/08/the-travels-and-travails-of-the-mona-lisa/