The Mona Lisa HAS BEEN STOLEN!
(a hundred years ago)
Mystery Mob,
Have you ever visited the Mona Lisa? For a portrait that’s only 30 x 21 inches, it draws (or used to draw pre-COVID) around 6 million visitors each year! One of the most valuable paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa holds the Guinness World record for the highest known insurance valuation in history -- $870 million at time of writing.
But what if we’ve all been duped? What if it’s not THAT amazing of a painting? What if everyone only knows about the Mona Lisa because of its theft in 1911?
Before we get a little too ARTrageous… let’s answer this past Wednesday’s whodunnit riddle:
On Thursday afternoon, a friendly woman brought a home baked pie to her wealthy neighbor’s house. She noticed that the front door was ajar, and through the crack she could see her neighbor’s body lying in a pool of dried blood. On the porch were two packages, unopened letters, Monday's newspaper, junk mail, and a flyer for a plumbing service.
A detective arrived on the scene and suspects murder. Who does the detective suspect and why?
Answer: The paperboy (or the mailman). They knew not to deliver the paper past Monday.
Now pop on your beret and throw a croissant in your mouth- We’re headed to PARIS!
The City of Love & Stuff
The best crime is the one that no one knows happened.
On Tuesday morning, August 22, 1911, painter Louis Beroud noticed that the Mona Lisa was missing. This was not altogether an unusual thing. See, paintings were often taken and photographed in different locations (typically outside as the cameras of the day did not do well with low lighting).
Beroud was a pushy artiste, however, claiming “he felt he couldn’t work as long as the Mona Lisa wasn’t there.” So, after much grumbling to the guards, word was sent out to find the photographers… who turned out to have no idea where it was.
The Mona Lisa had been stolen.
How was this possible? Was it a perfect Ocean’s 11 type heist? Answers abound, but first let’s set the scene just a bit more:
BULLET PROOF
The below image is the MonaLisa as of today. According to the NYT, 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.”
Not too shabby for a little piece of paper.
But this next image is a rendering of what its resting place looked like in 1911. Just chillin’ on a wall next to a bunch of other paintings. There were some precautions, of course. The painting rested inside a frame with protective glass, all in all totalling around 200 pounds.
No easy feat to just sneak out with a 200lb painting. The authorities were baffled.
The Louvre was closed for a week and seemingly everyone was under suspicion, including Pablo Picasso (he was later exonerated.) There were even people who thought the Kaiser was behind the theft, as tensions were escalating between France & Germany pre WWI.
Suddenly, the Mona Lisa was the most famous painting in the world… almost overnight.
The Reveal
According to writer and historian James Zug, Sunday nights were a big social night in Paris back in 1911. Like, such a social night that it was normal for Parisians to be incredibly hungover come Monday morning (I knew I liked this town) so things moved a little slower. Why does this matter?
Because people would not have had the brain capacity to pay much attention to the three fellas hustling out of the Louvre…
The culprit was a Louvre employee named Vincenzo Peruggia, one of the men who had helped construct the painting’s glass case. He was an Italian patriot who believed that DaVinci’s painting should be returned to an Italian museum (and maybe he’d be rewarded with a little cheddar cheese for his efforts.)
Peruggia’s plan was simple: come to work on Sunday, hide in a broom closet, strip the painting from its case during the night, and exit the following morning.
And that’s exactly what he did.
But there was one thing he hadn’t expected: the sudden attention that the theft would bring to the painting. He couldn’t move the painting, nor could he pawn it off for fear of being arrested.
He was effectively trapped.
He Left A Pizza His Heart
Perrugia stashed the Mona Lisa in the false bottom of a trunk in his Paris boarding house. Twenty-eight months later, he tried to sell it to an art dealer in Florence.
Plenty of copies had been made and were floated around the art trade world, but this particular dealer was very keen. A stamp on the back of the Mona Lisa confirmed its authenticity. Perrugia was promised a reward for the painting...half an hour later the police were at his door.
At last, the Mona Lisa was returned to the Louvre. Perrugia pled guilty to the theft and was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Hungry for more?
The Mona Lisa has an even more fascinating history than just this theft (including almost being burned up by acid!) so feel free to take a deeper dive below:
Here’s an NPR article covering the theft.
Artrageous with Nate on YouTube
A podcast episode featured on Twisted.
As always,
Stay ‘spicious
-Andy & Mark
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