‘The View’ Co-Hosts Butt Heads Over Mona Lisa Defacement

Tuesday morning’s episode of The View was contentious but for a surprising reason this time around. The co-hosts were more divided than you might have guessed when discussing the attempted vandalization of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines and guest co-host Tara Setmayer condemned the stunt, but Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin felt like it might have been a smart move.

For those catching up, a man attempted to deface Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa on Monday, though he ultimately failed. A video of the man smearing frosting on the painting’s protective glass has gone viral, and he was apparently staging a protest against the oil industry and other contributors to climate change. While most of the women at the table on Tuesday felt like he had undercut his own point with his shocking actions, Behar and Hostin felt like this might be just the kind of drastic measure we need to start a real conversation.

MAN ATTACKS MONA LISA IN CLIMATE PROTEST: A man was arrested at the Louvre for throwing cake on the glass protecting the Mona Lisa, claiming he did it to protest the people destroying the planet — the co-hosts and guest co-host @TaraSetmayer react. pic.twitter.com/n5U58LWGnV

— The View (@TheView) May 31, 2022

“It’s asinine!” began Setmayer when the conversation had been set up. She pointed out that people are talking more about the stunt itself than the man’s pro-environment agenda. She said: “We’re talking about that, as opposed to the cause. So I think those kinds of stunts – like he wore a wig, and he dressed up as an elderly woman in a wheelchair to smuggle it in – we’re talking about that, as opposed to what the issue is that he’s actually protesting. So I think that stunts like that don’t work at all.”

“I think they work. I mean, we’re talking about it,” Hostin replied with a laugh. Hostin argued that the stunt was well-planned since it didn’t actually destroy a cultural artifact, while it did provoke some level of conversation. Meanwhile, Behar compared it to the kinds of stunts pulled off by anti-war protesters in the 1960s called Yippies.

Maybe this is just nuts to me💀but an man dressed as an old lady jumps out of a wheel chair and attempted to smash the bullet proof glass of the Mona Lisa. Then proceeds to smear cake on the glass, and throws roses everywhere all before being tackled by security. 😂??? pic.twitter.com/OFXdx9eWcM

— Lukeee🧃 (@lukeXC2002) May 29, 2022

Goldberg felt that no protest was worth defacing a piece of art, no matter what. She said: “I totally get protest, I dig it. I don’t think it’s okay to destroy somebody else’s art in order to make your point.”

According to a report by CNN, the Mona Lisa is just fine after this stunt. The man who pulled off the stunt was arrested, but police took him to a psychiatric facility instead of prison. Prosecutors are planning to charge him with “the attempt of damaging a cultural property.”