Among the most famous thefts in art history, there is certainly that of the Mona Lisa.
Indeed, the most famous painting of all time was stolen from the Louvre in 1911.
The Theft: The Dynamics and the Author
The theft of the Mona Lisa occurred around seven in the morning on Monday August 21, 1911.
Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian painter employed by the French museum, took advantage of the closure day, entered through a service door generally used by workers, and, after making his way undisturbed to the room where the Mona Lisa was displayed, stole it by removing it from its frame.
The Reasons for the Theft
Peruggia was convinced that the Mona Lisa had been stolen by Napoleon and illicitly taken to France as part of his spoils.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The presence of the artwork in France is documented as early as 1516, the year in which it is believed Leonardo brought it with him on one of his travels.
In any case, Peruggia, steadfast in his beliefs, partly for money but mostly – as he would later declare – “for patriotic spirit“, decided to return the canvas to Italy.
The Investigations and the Suspects
After the theft, investigations began immediately and involved public appeals and promises of monetary rewards to all Parisians.
Even Guillaume Apollinaire was mistakenly detained, who was even arrested in September 1911, and Pablo Picasso was only questioned. Both managed to prove their innocence.
Peruggia was captured only in 1913.
For the two years following the theft, the Mona Lisa remained hidden in a box and kept at home.
The thief even attempted to sell it to the Uffizi in Florence, the only museum among many he had tried to contact, wanting first to examine the work to verify its authenticity. It was indeed her.
The then director of the Uffizi, Giovanni Poggi, along with the Florentine antiquarian Alfredo Geri, alerted the authorities, and Peruggia, who was meanwhile strolling undisturbed around the city, was arrested.
In the end, he was tried in Florence and sentenced to one year in prison, later reduced to seven months and eight days, but, as soon as the sentence was issued, he was released.
Before returning to the Louvre on January 4, 1914, the Mona Lisa was exhibited in several Italian museums: first at the Uffizi in Florence, then at the Borghese Gallery in Rome and in Milan at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
Her return to the Louvre was, in fact, a sort of solemn journey with stages that also aimed to symbolize the unchanged peace in relations between Italy and France, despite the “incident” caused by Peruggia’s excessive patriotism.
