German artists were arrested at the Louvre for installing their own art near the Mona Lisa
Two German artists were arrested at the Louvre this week after taping their own canvases to the wall of the Salle des États, the room where the Mona Lisa hangs, in what appears to have been a deliberate, unauthorized stunt aimed at the crowds and security apparatus that surround Leonardo's portrait. Museum security intervened once the installation was discovered, and French authorities took the artists into custody, though details of any charges were not immediately clear. The episode landed amid a wider pattern of concern about security at the Louvre, still smarting from a string of recent thefts and disruptions that have renewed scrutiny of how the world's most-visited museum protects its most valuable rooms — and made the Mona Lisa's gallery, in particular, a recurring flashpoint for artists, protesters, and publicity-seekers testing how far they can get before being stopped.
