It’s a photo that will haunt Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for the rest of his days—and will likely haunt the British Royal Family forever—and now activists have decided it belongs in the Louvre.
Activists from the ‘Everyone Hates Elon’ group hung the photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after his release from a police detention centre in Norfolk on Thursday evening, following his arrest earlier in the day on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released nearly 12 hours after arrest, under investigation.
On the ‘Everyone Hates Elon’ Instagram account, a video shows an activist hanging the photo with a caption underneath that reads “He’s sweating now,” the headline on the cover of The Sun’s Thursday evening edition.
“They say ‘hang it in the Louvre’. So we did,” the caption on the Instagram post reads. The group later provided a statement to the media, saying, “We thought we’d show the former Prince Andrew how the world will remember him by putting up this iconic arrest photo at the Louvre.
“Let’s hope this is just the start. Justice for all Epstein survivors.”
The photo and caption hung for only 15 minutes before staff at the Louvre removed it.
When Andrew’s release photo was first published on newspaper covers around the world, Lydia Starbuck, Royal Central’s editor-in-chief wrote how, despite its recency, “it is already one of the most famous pictures of royalty ever taken and it has a place in the history books of the 21st century, for all the wrong reasons.
“For this one image captured the fall from lofty heights of a former prince who some have claimed was always rather assured of his royal importance.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was forced to quit Royal Lodge, his long-time Windsor home for a more modest lodging on the Sandringham estate. Police continue to search his former home, while searches at Sandringham have concluded.
He had been stripped of all titles and styles earlier this year by King Charles, and is now known simply by his birth name, and is also facing the prospect of an act of Parliament to remove him from the line of succession. He is currently eighth in line to the throne, and an act of Parliament would require the agreement of all Commonwealth realms where King Charles is head of state to take effect.
King Charles said in a statement that “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
“In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”
