Man Arrested After Attempting to Smear ‘Mona Lisa’ With Cake While Disguised as Old Woman

A 36-year-old man who masqueraded as an old woman has been arrested after he smeared cake across the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.

As the Associated Press reported, the French capital’s prosecutor’s officer confirmed the man’s arrest following the incident on Sunday, and he has since been taken to a police psychiatric unit. Videos shared on social media appeared to show the man, who was in disguise in a wheelchair, being escorted from the scene as someone cleaned the cake off the glass. The actual moment the man threw the cake, after supposedly throwing roses at museum patrons, does not seem to have been captured on video.

The identity of the man has not been released, but one clip shared on Twitter shows him speaking to the guests as police escorted him out of the building.

“Think of the Earth! There are people who are destroying the Earth!” he said in the video, according to the AP’s translation. “Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.” 

In a statement on the incident, the Louvre confirmed someone attempted to attack the Mona Lisa with a “patisserie.” The painting, which was first put on display at the Louvre in 1797, was not harmed in the cake-based attack.