It is one of the most viewed paintings in the world, contemplated by crowds of tourists under the watchful eye of numerous guards.
But that did not stop a Russian visitor to the Louvre museum in Paris, frustrated at not having been granted French nationality, from hurling a ceramic mug at the Mona Lisa in an attack on Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece earlier this month.
The unnamed woman brought an English-made mug in to the museum on the first Sunday of the month, when admission was free.
She hurled it at the painting and it shattered against the protective bulletproof glass, leaving the masterpiece undamaged.
"The visitor was immediately apprehended by museum guards and she gave herself up willingly," David Madec, a Louvre spokesman, told the Guardian.
"Staff cleared up the broken pieces of the mug, but there was no more than a moment's disruption and the room wasn't closed. There was no damage to the painting."
The woman, described as "visibly upset", later told police she was frustrated that she had not been granted French citizenship. She underwent psychiatric testing and was released.
The Louvre filed a legal complaint as a matter of course because police were called to intervene.
