Skeptic Project

Like some kind of paranoid Banksy, a woman entered a Louvre gallery today and scrawled 9/11 conspiracy graffiti on Eugene Delacroix's canvas Liberty Leading the People.

Reuters' Pierre Savary reports that a 28-year-old woman has been apprehended by police after using a black marker to write "AE911" over a foot-long region at the bottom of Delacroix's famous painting. For those of you not active in forums like TruthMove or truthaction, AE911 stands for "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth." They're one of the most vocal groups accusing the 9/11 Commission Report of covering up the facts about who really planned and executed the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Authorities aren't yet saying if the woman is a confirmed truther -- the museum's communications director tells France24's Tony Todd, "She is still under arrest and the state prosecutor is here at the museum investigating this."

The defacing happened at the Louvre-Lens, a satellite of the Louvre proper in northern France. The painting is currently on loan from the enormous Parisian art repository, and its an iconic symbol of the French Revolution. It was even used on French currency from 1978 through 1995. But Francophiles need not fear a repeat of that "Ecce Homo" fresco botching -- the museums' conservator has already successfully removed the scribbling.
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Amazing that a conspiracy theorist even knew about art, and could write and spell.