Two activists from the Riposte Alimentaire collective were arrested after sticking posters around the painting Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix, at the Louvre Museum on the morning of Wednesday May 8, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from concordant sources.
“Resisting is vital”, we can read on these stickers affixed to the wall, according to the images transmitted by the collective. In front, two of its members briefly chanted slogans in favor of “social security of sustainable food”, with their fists raised.
“The work did not suffer any damage,” the Louvre told AFP, without further comment. After more than six months of restoration, the famous painting created in 1830 has just been re-exhibited. The two people were arrested for willful damage during a meeting and a complaint was filed by a representative of the Louvre, according to a police source.
Riposte Alimentaire (formerly Last Renovation) has already claimed responsibility for throwing soup on the window that protects the Mona Lisa at the Louvre last January. Other works have been the subject of acts of vandalism or attempted damage in recent times.
Monday is The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet, a painting painted in 1866, which was tagged with red paint at the Center Pompidou-Metz, a work on loan from the Musée d’Orsay. Two women claiming an artistic “performance” were indicted for tagging five works in total.
