Two pranksters managed to sneak a fake painting into the Louvre just weeks after a $102 million heist there — getting past security simply by using a Lego frame.
Neal Remmerie and Senne Haverbeke filmed themselves bringing in the fake painting through security — then putting it in the same room as Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.
The Belgian duo showed how they built the frame from Lego bricks, which did not set off the famous museum’s metal detectors. Once in, they put in a joky oil painting portrait of them together, which they got in by keeping rolled up.
Belgian pranksters snuck their own portrait into the Louvre and installed it. NX
The pair hung their painting in the same room as the Mona Lisa. NX
“We arrived an hour before closing time, but visitors had to leave the room half an hour later. We hung the canvas in a hurry,” Haverbeke explained in the video in Flemish.
He smiled as the picture was displayed in the Salle des Etats gallery, close to the Mona Lisa, even after the recent security scare there.
“We knew it was risky. Once we hung up the painting, we left immediately. We didn’t want to provoke security or wait for their reaction,” he added.
The painting was displayed for less than three minutes before it was removed, a museum rep told the Brussels Times — while stressing that its lawyers were still considering possible legal action..
The stunt comes just a month after thieves made off with $102 million worth of precious jewels from the Louvre.
Four suspects have been charged over the heist, which targeted the French crown jewels.
It comes just weeks after thieves stole $102m in jewels from the Paris art gallery. Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
In the wake of the robbery, the Louvre announced a $92 million new master security plan following a series of damaging allegations about the museum’s crumbling infrastructure.
On Monday, the Louvre was also forced to shut one of its galleries over fears the ceiling could collapse.
The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics, will remain closed while investigators examine “certain beams supporting the floors of the second floor above it,” the museum said in a statement.