French police have arrested two people after protesters threw lentil soup at the Mona Lisa painting in Paris.
Footage shows two environmental protesters hurling the orange liquid at the painting displayed in the Louvre, as they called for “healthy and sustainable food”.
One of the women was filmed shouting: “What’s the most important thing? Art or right to healthy and sustainable food?
“Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work.”
The Mona Lisa is protected behind armoured glass and was not damaged in the act, museum staff said. In 2022, the painting was vandalised after a man threw cake at it.
One of the protesters removed her jacket to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan of the activist group Risposte Alimentaire, which translates to “food counterattack”.
Riposte Alimentaire claimed responsibility for the group’s stunt on special media. The group is part of the Europe-wide A22 movement which also consists of UK activist group Just Stop Oil.
In a statement to AFP, the group said the protester’s actions marked “the start of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand… of the social security of sustainable food”.
The group’s actions come as French farmers protest across the country.
Why are French farmers protesting?
Farmers in France have been protesting nationwide, blocking main roads to Paris and demanding the government address their grievances.
The activists are calling on the government to give in to their demands that growing food be made easier and more lucrative.
The movement has spread across the country, with protesters using their tractors to shut down long stretches of road and slow traffic on some major routes.
The farmers are seeking better remuneration for their produce, less red tape, and protection against cheap imports, AP has reported.
On Friday, the government announced a series of measures that farmers said don’t fully address their demands. Those include “drastically simplifying” certain technical procedures and the progressive end to diesel fuel taxes for farm vehicles.
Following the Louvre protest, the government announced a clamp down on activism.
Speaking after an emergency meeting on Sunday evening, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said 15,000 police officers are being deployed, mostly in the Paris region.
Mr Darmanin said he ordered security forces to “prevent any blockade” of Rungis international market — which supplies the capital and surrounding region with much of its fresh food — and the Paris airports, as well as to ban any convoy of farmers from entering the capital and any other big city. He said that helicopters will monitor convoys of tractors.
France’s two biggest farmers' unions said in a statement that their members based in areas surrounding the Paris region would seek to block all major roads to the capital, with the aim of putting the city “under siege", starting Monday afternoon (January 29).
