Russian throws cup at Mona Lisa

It smashed on the bullet-proof glass; Da Vinci painting is unharmed

An "unhinged" Russian woman threw a teacup at the world's most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but it emerged unscathed due to its bullet-proof glass cover, the Louvre museum said yesterday.

"The young woman took a cup out of her bag and threw it over the heads of other people who were looking at the painting. The cup smashed on the bullet-proof glass which was slightly scratched," a spokesman said.

"It looks like it was done by someone who was unhinged and wanted to draw attention to herself," he said.

The woman put up no resistance when museum guards apprehended her after the incident on August 2.

She was handed over to police who said the woman "did not have all her mental faculties and has been transferred to the police psychiatric infirmary."

"There was no damage done to the painting whatsoever," a museum official told French newspaper Le Parisien.
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"It is kept in a special sealed box to protect it from vibrations, heat and humidity. It is protected by thick glass resistant to bullets and any other object hurled at it."

Stendhal syndrome

Doctors are still trying to assess whether she is a sufferer of Stendhal Syndrome: a medical condition that prompts sane individuals to lose control of their actions suddenly and defame a work of art.

Hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome, is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place.
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It is named after the famous 19th century French author Stendhal, who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.

Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in Florentine art, especially at the Uffizi, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed and described more than 100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1982.

Previous Attacks

The 500-year-old painting was stolen in 1911 from the Louvre but was returned two years later after an Italian was arrested for its theft.

It was doused with acid by a vandal in 1956 and later the same year a Bolivian damaged it again by throwing a rock at it.