Mona Lisa: Protesters throw soup at da Vinci painting

Protesters have thrown soup at the glass-protected Mona Lisa painting in France, calling for the right to "healthy and sustainable food".

The 16th Century painting by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the world's most famous artworks, and is held at the Louvre in central Paris. BBC reports.

It sits behind bulletproof glass so is unlikely to have been damaged.

Video shows two female protesters wearing T-shirts that read "food counterattack" throwing the liquid.

They then stand in front of the painting, saying: "What is more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?

"Your agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work," they add.

A group called Riposte Alimentaire ("Food counterattack") claimed responsibility for the stunt.

In a statement sent to AFP news agency, they said the soup throwing marked the "start of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand... of the social security of sustainable food".

Rachida Dati, France's Minister for Culture, said "no cause" can justify the Mona Lisa being targeted.

"Like our heritage [the painting] belongs to future generations," she said on X, formerly Twitter.

The French capital has seen protests by farmers in recent days, calling for an end to rising fuel costs and for regulations to be simplified - on Friday they blocked key roads in and out of Paris.

In 2019, the museum said it had installed a more transparent form of bulletproof glass to protect it.

In 2022, an activist threw cake at the painting, urging people to "think of the Earth".

The painting was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, causing an international sensation. Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world's most visited museum, hid in a cupboard overnight to take the painting.

It was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.