Another Twitter user said: “Maybe this is just nuts to me but a man dressed as an old lady jumps out of a wheelchair and attempted to smash the bulletproof glass of the Mona Lisa.

“Then proceeds to smear cake on the glass, and throws roses everywhere all before being tackled by security???”

The Mona Lisa attracts about 10.2 million people a year, with about 80 per cent of visitors to the museum believed to come just to see the work. A new queuing system was recently introduced to create shorter waiting times and a more intimate experience with the painting.

The 16th-century Renaissance masterpiece has been behind glass since a Bolivian man threw a rock at the painting in December 1956, damaging her left elbow. In 2009, a Russian woman threw an empty teacup at the painting, which slightly scratched the case.

The painting was stolen in 1911 by a museum employee, an event that increased the painting’s international fame.