Lady Gaga came face to face with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and put a lipstick smile on her face in a new video released by the singer and the French museum.
The American diva, who stars in the new Joker film, took on the persona of Harley Quinn to do a little lipstick "vandalism" on Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece to promote the Louvre's new exhibition, "Figures of a Fool", which like the film opens next month.
Lady Gaga sneaks into the Paris museum at night wearing a red wig, singing a song composed specifically for the video, which was posted to her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
She finds herself eye-to-eye with the Mona Lisa before painting a clownish smile with lipstick on the protective glass in front of her. As she pulls back, a tear falls from the star's eye, painted on with black mascara.
Asked about the wisdom of encouraging such gestures at a time when paintings are regularly attacked in museums by climate activists, the Louvre insists the video is "purely fictional" and a tribute to Leonardo, who was obsessed with the smile.
The museum insists that an extra screen was placed in front of the 3.8cm-thick impenetrable screen that protects the canvas for the video.
The lipstick smile is an echo of a key scene in The Joker when Harley Quinn visits the Joker, his soulmate in prison.
The Louvre said it worked with Hollywood studio Warner Bros Pictures, which made the film, which shot the video at the museum.
Not for the first time, the Louvre was a playground for the stars.
Rapper and producer Will.i.am made a name for himself by taking the reins of Napoleon's white chariot for his 2016 animated video for the song "Mona Lisa Smile."
Two years later, Beyoncé and Jay-Z filmed their "Apeshit" video, using Jericho's iconic "Medusa's Raft," "Mona Lisa" and "Napoleon's Coronation" to make several witty remarks about the place of blackness and the lack thereof in classical art history.
Recently, the Louvre, the world's most visited museum, caused a stir with footage of singer Celine Dion's private visit before she sang at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris in July. | BGNES
