An attack on a Louvre masterpiece is, of course, nothing to be laughed at, but you can't miss the droll undercurrent in this report today from telegraph.co.uk about a Russian tourist who employed a unique if handy weapon in her assault on the Mona Lisa:
Screams erupted from the 40-odd tourists jostling for position around Leonardo da Vinci's enigmatic painted lady when the empty terracotta mug flew over their heads and smashed into the portrait.
The Russian woman is thought to have bought it minutes earlier at the museum gift shop.
Another instance of museums ruined by commerce!
The story goes on to reassure readers that "Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile was unaffected by the commotion," and then lists some prior examples of "Stendhal Syndrome, a rare condition in which often perfectly sane individuals momentarily lose all reason and attack a work of art." Culprits include a woman who left a lipstick smudge on a Cy Twombly (she was sentenced to "community work"); a man who ripped a hole in a Monet; and, my personal favorite, "a mathematics professor and calm family man" who "suddenly attacked a statue of the Roman philosopher Seneca with a hammer."
Everybody's a critic.
