Mona Lisa: Man dressed as old woman throws cake at da Vinci painting

Totally uncool.

Yeah, it's awful. Sadly, I think we'll start seeing more of this kind of thing again as travel picks up.

Let her eat cake!

" Let Them Eat Cake ' This infamous quote , attributed to Marie Antoinette and most likely apocryphal , actually has a meaning totally opposite to its implication . " Cake " in this sense doesn't refer to the sweet , gooey , delectable stuff , most of us adore . Back in the eighteenth century , bread was baked on the floor of an oven ( stone or brick ) . The bottom of the loaf , would be scorched and burned during baking , and was called cake . Hence the order to throw it to the peasants . Once cut away from the rest of the loaf , the remainder was called " The Upper Crust " , becoming the sobriquet for the well - heeled who didn't partake of lowly cake . ;-)

Expect the bag inspections/restrictions to tighten

yeah no -- Marie supposedly told them eat brioche if they couldn't get bread -- has nothing to do with burned bottoms of bread loves. Brioche which is a sweet cake like bread gets translated into English as 'cake'.

Comments have wandered a bit off topic, but in the name of truth and accuracy, read this

https://www.britannica.com/story/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake

My source was a docent at The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem , Massachusetts , some years ago . Take your pick , it seems .

One of the reasons I find guided tours annoying is that they invariable include nonsense like this that is deemed entertaining to tourists. Probably Marie didn't say it at all, but the quote attributed to her in French is clearly about a luxury bread not burned scraps.

How did he get past security?????

"How did he get past security?????"

The security for the museum is at the entrances. There are restaurants and food outlets within the secure area and I've seen people bring in picnic lunches (usually groups of school kids) so that has been allowed. There is no extra security going in to each wing from the food area although maybe they will do that now.

what Rick won't do for publicity ...

Janet is correct - the French phrase uses the word for brioche, which is a sweeter bread that was not affordable to the masses. "Cake" is the English translation and has nothing to do with burned bread. The phrase came from an account decades before the revolution and was no doubt recycled when Marie lost her popularity (and later her head).

I was pretty much horrified when I read this article. The incident happened on May 29. We visited the Lourve on May 30 and there was no additional security that we could see. We did see some school children climbing on an Egyptian statue. The guard went nuts.