Everyday, thousands of visitors pour into the Louvre Museum in Paris, France just to see one painting: the ‘Mona Lisa’. And being one of, if not the most famous painting in the world, it’s bound to have some controversy.

On Sunday, May 29 a masqueraded climate activist smashed cake against the glass casing that surrounds the famous painting.

“I think it’s ridiculous, obviously, but it’s also kind of sad at this point that it was the only thing the guy could think of to try and bring attention to such an important issue. I don’t think throwing cake makes much sense, but I empathize with his desire to somehow get the people in power to fix major problems,” sophomore Harry Resnik said.

In order to approach the painting closely, the perpetrator disguised himself as a woman in a wheelchair. At the Louvre, visitors who use wheelchairs are allowed to move closer than others to see the painting. Because the Mona Lisa is surrounded by a glass case, the cake did no damage at all to the painting itself or even the case, which was wiped clean soon after.

As the 36-year-old was arrested and taken away by the museum security, he shouted in French, “Think of planet Earth, there are people destroying it!”

A glass case was first put in place around the Mona Lisa after an acid attack in the early 1950s that harmed the bottom of the canvas. The most recent attempt at vandalism of the painting was in 2009 when a woman who was denied French citizenship threw a teacup against the glass casing. The painting was not damaged at all then either.

“I think the cake being thrown was definitely an interesting way to get a message across,” junior Sydney Fouch said.