Visitors Arrested at Louvre After Posting Their Artworks Near Mona Lisa
Two visitors to the Louvre in Paris were arrested on Saturday after taping two small paintings (about 11.8 by 15.7 inches) onto the walls of the Salle des États, the gallery that houses Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” according to Agence France-Presse citing police sources. The suspects, identified only as German nationals, were detained by museum security and arrested for damaging the museum’s walls; police said they told investigators they did it “for fun,” and the Mona Lisa was not damaged. The incident comes amid heightened security concerns in France following a Louvre heist nearly a year earlier in which $102 million in crown jewels were stolen from the nearby Galerie d’Apollon, and after a leaked government audit described the museum’s security as “outdated and inadequate.” ARTnews reports that Louvre president-director Laurence des Cars resigned in February and was replaced by Christophe Leribault, who told the French Senate the museum faces urgent building and security needs, including a new perimeter video surveillance system planned for installation in January, as part of a renovation expected to cost more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion) that includes a new 33,000-square-foot Mona Lisa space with its own entrance.
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This story was covered in Sound Wars, Body Politics, and Museum Crackdowns