Art Culture Eugène Delacroix France Grafffiti Liberty leading the people Louvre Museum Vandalism

Issued on 08-02-2013 • Modified 08-02-2013 to 12:21

A 28-year--old woman has vandalised one of France’s most treasured paintings, scrawling graffiti that appears to refer to 9/11 conspiracy theories over Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty leading the people in the Louvre’s new museum in Lens, northern France.

The woman, whose name has not been made public, scrawled “AE911” in six centimetre-high letters in indelible felt-tip marker across Delacroix’s most famous work just

Interactive map of France

before the Louvre-Lens closed on Thursday, sources say.

Another visitor and security guard immediately grabbed her and she was still in police custody on Friday morning.

She has not made any statement on the reason for her act but AE911 is the name of a website carrying a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center.

A specialist restorer was rushed to the scene and the Louvre believes that the inscription can be removed.