On Sunday afternoon, a man disguised as an elderly woman in a wheelchair attempted to vandalise the Mona Lisa.

Bystanders reported that a young man “dressed as an old lady” leapt up from a wheelchair before attempting to smash the bulletproof glass case protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. He went on to smear cake across the glass screen.

He then threw roses at the crowd before being tackled and escorted away by security. Another video showed a member of staff scrubbing cake off the glass.

The painting was undamaged.

The man is suspected to be a climate activist. In one video posted to Twitter, the man tells bystanders: “Think of the planet… there are people who are destroying the planet, think about that… That's why I did it.”

This isn’t the first time the painting has been subjected to vandalism: over the years, it’s had sulfuric acid, a rock, and a teacup thrown at it, and was even stolen by an Italian patriot in 1911.