Mona Lisa takes tea

An attack on the priceless work of art by Leonardo De Vinci in the Louvre recently made me think.

Not only was I puzzled by the conflicting reports over the attack – did the Russian woman's mug have steaming hot tea in it as per the Mirror or had it just been bought in the gift shop as the Telegraph would have us believe?

Well it doesn't much matter as the painting is held in a special box to protect it from vibrations and humidity, and it is further protected by thick, bullet proof glass.

The woman - who was not protected by bullet proof anything – was wrestled to the ground by guards and then taken away for psychological examination.

And would you believe it, there is a scientific name for such irrational attacks on art. It's known as Stendhal Syndrome and its sufferers, usually perfectly sane and rational people, momentarily lose all reason and attack a work of art.

Hmm, all very interesting, but I wish she'd thrown something a bit more exciting than tea.

A bunch of bananas would be good or how about a bowl of jelly – yes jelly would be very good, but not particularly clever or witty – I'm trying very hard but haven't thought of anything that could be construed as a perfectly rational thing to throw at the enigmatic lady.

And by the look of the frustrated art fans below, it could be that the next thing to end up launching towards the most famous picture in the world is going to be a camera or two or three…

Image © sergeymk vis Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence