Feeling queasy with the Mona Lisa
By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 11 August 2009
The world’s media is in a lather over the news that a Russian woman threw a cup of hot English Breakfast tea at the Mona Lisa last week. A Louvre spokesman was keen to reassure us that “the work was not damaged. The museum has filed a complaint [to the authorities]. The cup was thrown at the glass casing of the Mona Lisa.” The da Vinci vandal apparently smuggled the steaming brew into the gallery from one of the museum’s cafes but we’re most intrigued by this Daily Mail snippet: “Doctors were trying to assess whether she was suffering from Stendhal Syndrome, a rare condition that causes dizziness, confusion or violent acts when an individual is exposed to art.” Is that why art connoisseurs sometimes feel unwell when looking at the work of certain YBAs?
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