For roughly 15 minutes on Sunday, visitors to the Louvre could have stumbled upon a curious addition to the museum’s holdings: a framed photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, that was captured moments after his arrest on February 19.
The image, taken by Reuters photographer Phil Noble as Andrew left police custody in Norfolk, shows him slumped in the back of a car. Activists from the anti-billionaire campaign group Everyone Hates Elon placed the photograph inside the Paris museum in a gilded frame, according to the Art Newspaper, with a caption reading “He’s Sweating Now — 2026,” a cheeky nod to his infamous 2019 BBC interview in which he claimed he was medically unable to sweat.
Louvre staff removed the work after about 15 minutes. A museum representative declined to comment on how the picture was brought to the institution’s attention, what happened to it, or if there would be charges filed against the activist group.
The stunt came days after Andrew’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Authorities are investigating allegations that, while serving as the UK’s trade envoy, he shared confidential government documents with Jeffrey Epstein. He has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing. Misconduct in public office carries a potential life sentence in the UK.
On Instagram, the activist group posted a video of the installation alongside the caption, “They say ‘hang it in the Louvre.’ So we did,” and called for “justice for all Epstein survivors.”
The photograph has already been described by royal commentators as one of the defining images of the modern monarchy. Lydia Starbuck of Royal Central called it a visual marker of a dramatic fall from grace. Journalist Sarah Hewson told ABC Australia that it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
By placing the photograph in the Louvre, the activists effectively declared that this moment belongs in the gallery of public memory. The Independent argued that the episode reflects something larger than one disgraced royal, signaling the collapse of deference to a flailing institution. In this context, the Louvre stunt functions less like a prank and more like a cultural verdict, implying that the photograph is not just a tabloid snapshot, but a symbol, or perhaps a demand, for accountability.
The image itself carries layers of recent history. The “sweating” reference recalls Virginia Giuffre’s allegation that Andrew was “sweating profusely” during an encounter she described as sexual assault, which he has denied. He settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022 without admitting liability.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 and later charged with federal sex trafficking offenses before his death in 2019.
