{"id":2295712,"date":"2026-02-23T17:02:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2295712"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:02:03","slug":"hang-it-in-the-louvre-why-ex-prince-andrews-taxi-photo-is-so-dangerous-for-the-royal-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/hang-it-in-the-louvre-why-ex-prince-andrews-taxi-photo-is-so-dangerous-for-the-royal-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Hang it in the Louvre: Why ex-Prince Andrew\u2019s taxi photo is so dangerous for the royal family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<p><span class=\"big-letter\">I<\/span>n ex-Prince Andrew\u2019s taxi mugshot, taken right after his arrest, we see his mouth gaping open like Edvard Munch\u2019s <em>The Scream<\/em>, one eye red and wild and lowered in rage like Alexandre Cabanel\u2019s <em>The Fallen Angel<\/em> (which depicts, interestingly, the Devil after his fall from heaven \u2013 eyes emoji on that). And in a perfect example of life imitating art (as well as simply giving us all a good LOL), <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/tv\/news\/andrew-arrest-photo-louvre-paris-video-b2925360.html\">activists have done exactly that<\/a>: they\u2019ve hung <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/andrew-mountbatten-windsor\">Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a> in the <em>actual<\/em> Louvre. <\/p>\n<p>Campaign group Everyone Hates Elon, who are reportedly responsible for the simple (yet brilliant) stunt, say they secretly placed the photograph in the Paris museum shortly after the former royal\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/crime\/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-what-happens-next-why-b2924891.html\" title=\"What happens next after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest?\">arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office<\/a> over allegations he sent confidential government documents to convicted sex offender <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/jeffrey-epstein\">Jeffrey Epstein <\/a>(Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has since been released and has consistently denied any wrongdoing). But there\u2019s a very basic reason that the Louvre mischief works: it is because it\u2019s funny \u2013 and therefore, completely humiliating. <\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-awdjp1-2 cbpRGD sc-awdjp1-3 image align-center\">\n<figure class=\"sc-1cbdeug-0 cXcwgU\">\n<div data-gallery-length=\"2\" class=\"sc-awdjp1-0 jliLTq\"><\/p>\n<p><button class=\"sc-1uf4o3q-0 dkRtZs inline-gallery-btn\" id=\"trigger-autogallery-291102\"><span class=\"sc-1uf4o3q-1 hwVecx\">open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"sc-1cbdeug-1 sc-1cbdeug-3 gtVitN hgzWpY\">Campaign group Everyone Hates Elon say they secretly placed the photo in the Paris museum<span class=\"sc-1cbdeug-7 exGSyR\"> <!-- -->(<!-- -->Everyone Hates Elon<!-- -->)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Just as <em>South Park<\/em> \u201cgot\u201d Harry and Meghan three years ago<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/south-park-prince-harry-meghan-markle-full-episode-b2290152.html\"> with one simple, brutal episode<\/a> where they rip into the couple\u2019s move to California \u2013 and \u201cgot\u201d Donald Trump, too, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/south-park-season-28-finale-epstein-trump-b2882519.html\">in their Epstein-related season finale last December<\/a> (as well as <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/south-park-president-donald-trump-devil-b2795800.html\">apparently infuriating the White House <\/a>with one very NSFW episode about his penis in July) \u2013 it just goes to show that the old adage is always right: the human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter (h\/t Mark Twain). In other words, if you really want to get to someone, take the p**s out of them. Mr Mountbatten-Windsor being hung in the Louvre does exactly that. It\u2019s simple, beautiful and effective \u2013 just like great \u201cart\u201d should be.<\/p>\n<p>It cements his coup de gr\u00e2ce as a moment so seismic and so momentous that it marks a turning point not just for him personally, but also for the world of rulers and kings and aristocracy altogether. It proves that <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/andrew-arrest-epstein-trump-doj-b2923827.html\" title=\"The Epstein files arrest of former \u2018Prince\u2019 Andrew makes Trump\u2019s Justice Department look pathetic\">nobody is too big and too powerful<\/a> to be ridiculed. Nobody. Not presidents, not politicians \u2013 and certainly not princes. <\/p>\n<p>The after-effects will be devastating. This week, we learned of ongoing discussions to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/andrew-line-succession-government-albanese-b2925720.html\" title=\"Australia supports removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from royal line of succession\">remove Mr Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession<\/a> to the throne (he is currently still eighth after the families of William and Harry). <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/andrew-mountbattenwindsor-press-association-ed-davey-york-peter-mandelson-b2925070.html\">Searches are continuing at his former home in Windsor<\/a>, and Met Police officers are asking his protection officers to come forward with information following suggestions they may have turned a blind eye to what went on at sex offender <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/jeffrey-epstein\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>\u2019s island. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve also heard salacious new claims that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor may have <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/andrew-massages-travel-arrest-epstein-b2925705.html\" title=\"Andrew \u2018used taxpayers\u2019 money for massages while trade envoy\u2019, former civil servants claim\">charged taxpayers for \u201cmassage services\u201d<\/a> while working as a trade envoy, which all sounds very Toulouse-Lautrec, to me (the artist, lest we forget, immersed himself fully in the cabaret culture of Montmartre, Paris, in the late 1800s, where he documented the nightlife and brothels of the Belle \u00c9poque before dying at 36 of alcoholism and syphilis, showing that our past always catches up with us in the end&#8230; hey, Andrew?). <\/p>\n<p>But I think the Louvre stunt also shows something deeper, darker and more dangerous <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/william-kate-baftas-epstein-andrew-b2925398.html\" title=\"Prince William says he is not \u2018calm\u2019 at Baftas in first appearance since Andrew\u2019s arrest\">for the monarchy in Britain<\/a> \u2013 something that no amount of casting Mr Mountbatten-Windsor aside or branding him the \u201cblack sheep\u201d will change now: the era of deference is over. Long gone are the days of respect for kings and queens and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/voices\/queen-queue-lying-in-state-westminster-b2168646.html\">epic, days-long queues to see the body of her highness<\/a>; of bowing at coronations and waving flags at #<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/hun-culture-slang-language-colloquial-gen-z-b2599016.html\">PlattyJubes <\/a>parties. I can remember when the marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson was celebrated with street parties up and down the country. It\u2019s hard to imagine that happening again.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-awdjp1-2 cbpRGD sc-awdjp1-3 image align-center\">\n<figure class=\"sc-1cbdeug-0 cXcwgU\">\n<div data-gallery-length=\"2\" class=\"sc-awdjp1-0 kGXfiu\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2026\/02\/22\/19\/SEI286375061.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2026\/02\/22\/19\/SEI286375061.jpg?quality=75&amp;width=320&amp;auto=webp 320w, https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2026\/02\/22\/19\/SEI286375061.jpg?quality=75&amp;width=640&amp;auto=webp 640w\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\u2018When I look at Mr Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s mugshot, I think of all the other \u201cgreat\u201d works of accidental art\u2019\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p><button class=\"sc-1uf4o3q-0 dkRtZs inline-gallery-btn\" id=\"trigger-autogallery-291103\"><span class=\"sc-1uf4o3q-1 hwVecx\">open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"sc-1cbdeug-1 sc-1cbdeug-3 gtVitN hgzWpY\">\u2018When I look at Mr Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s mugshot, I think of all the other \u201cgreat\u201d works of accidental art\u2019<span class=\"sc-1cbdeug-7 exGSyR\"> <!-- -->(<!-- -->Reuters<!-- -->)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Our entire democracy is literally built on this culture. Parliament\u2019s clerks had, until last year, vetoed every attempt to raise concerns about Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and other royals. The defence has always been that Erskine May, the \u201cbible of parliamentary procedure\u201d that MPs have scrupulously followed for two centuries, prevents discussion of the monarchy and of any matters that reflect on the sovereign or royal family \u201cpersonally\u201d. Surely, not any more? <\/p>\n<p>Mr Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest \u2013 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/andrew-bodyguard-epstein-party-met-police-b2925184.html\">his excoriating fall from grace, <\/a>his dramatic climbdown from propriety amid the stain of potential illegality \u2013 signals we are in a new epoch, now. It is a post-royal period, a raucous and distinctly republican rumble. The age of irreverence (an ir-revolution?) has begun \u2013 and fittingly, it has started in France. We have done away with deference, by way of a snigger at <em>South Park<\/em> and a LOL at the Louvre. <\/p>\n<p>The idea that an image is so iconic, so meaningful that it is, truly, a work of art has, perhaps fittingly, become a meme in the age of the internet; \u201cHang It In the Louvre\u201d, they say, about a snapshot of a moment that transcends the moment, that becomes something bigger than itself and changes the world of forever. Remember that shot of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in 1965? It\u2019s so iconic, so meaningful \u2013 Ali with his mouth open, screaming at Liston to \u201cget up and fight\u201d after knocking him down with a phantom punch just one minute and 44 seconds into the first round in Maine. You can practically smell the blood and sweat and talc. Indeed, it paints so legendary a picture that it could, quite literally, \u201chang in the Louvre\u201d. Well, now there\u2019s another one.<\/p>\n<p>So, when I look at Mr Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s mugshot, I think of all the other \u201cgreat\u201d works of accidental art: Diego Maradona\u2019s \u201cHand of God\u201d 1986 World Cup goal (hang it in the Louvre). Pele, on the shoulders of his teammates when he won the World Cup in 1958 (hang it in the Louvre). Michael Jordan\u2019s 1988 slam dunk (hang it in the \u2013 OK, you get the picture). And the fallen prince, expelled from heaven.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In ex-Prince Andrew\u2019s taxi mugshot, taken right after his arrest, we see his mouth gaping open like Edvard Munch\u2019s The Scream, one eye red and wild and lowered in rage like Alexandre Cabanel\u2019s The Fallen Angel (which depicts, interestingly, the Devil after his fall from heaven \u2013 eyes emoji on that). And in a perfect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2295713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2295712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Hang-it-in-the-Louvre-Why-ex-Prince-Andrews-taxi-photo.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2295712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295714,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295712\/revisions\/2295714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2295712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2295712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2295712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}