Mona Lisa Smiles At Hurling Mug

by candice.tsuei | August 11, 2009 at 11:34 am

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A Russian tourist hurled a gift shop terracotta mug at the world's most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," under the watchful eyes of 40-odd tourists, according to the Louvre Museum.

"The woman threw an empty cup at the Mona Lisa, but there was no damage as the cup smashed when it hit the screen protecting the painting," said Louvre spokesman David Madec.

After the incident, the woman, showing no resistance, was seized by two museum security guards and handed over to the local police, who then reported that the woman "did not have all her mental faculties and has been transferred to the police psychiatric infirmary." She later told the police that she smashed the mug at the painting because she was furious about not being granted French citizenship.

Doctors were trying to assess whether she was suffering from Stendhal Syndrome, a rare condition in which often perfectly sane individuals momentarily lose all reason and attack a work of art.

Mona Lisa, on of the most viewed paintings in the world, is now 500-year-old.