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The Mona Lisa is protected by a fence that Beyoncé and Jay-Z ignored

Three of the most famous people in the world took a photo together recently: Beyoncé, her husband Jay-Z and the Mona Lisa:

bey and jay with Mona

Beyoncé and Jay-Z pose with the Mona Lisa (Beyonce.com)

Beyoncé uploaded an entire album of photos to her website of her family in the Louvre, the huge Parisian art museum. The album has pictures of Blue Ivy standing over an air vent looking adorable, and Beyoncé taking selfies with sculptures, but the most striking part of the album is how close Bey and Jay got to be to da Vinci’s masterpiece.

The Mona Lisa is one of the best-known and most-parodied pieces of art in history. It is also, according to The Independent, what most of the Louvre visitors are there to see:“There are 6,000 paintings in the Louvre. Ninety per cent of the museum’s visitors make a beeline to the Mona Lisa.” It is estimated that 8 million people per year see the painting.

That’s why the museum has developed a special protocol to keep the Mona Lisa safe. The painting hangs alone on a freestanding wall of the museum behind 1.52-inch-thick glass, and is “kept at a permanent temperature of 43 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent humidity,” according to the New York Times.

It also has a wooden fence installed in front of it to keep viewers back, and sometimes an additional rope fence. Take a look here:

You know who fences can’t stop? Jay-Z and Beyoncé and their golden child. Take a look at this photo of Jay-Z and Blue Ivy:

jay near the mona lisa

Jay-Z and Blue Ivy chilling with Mona (Beyonce.com)

See that wooden curved thing at the bottom of the frame? That’s the fence. Look at Jay-Z casually leaning against the box that was built before the fence to keep viewers away from the glass.

What do rules even matter if you have a billion dollars in the elevator?

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