Fun Facts About the Theft of the Mona Lisa

On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Salon Carré inside the Louvre Museum in Paris. The thief, an Italian glazier and former Louvre contractor named Vincenzo Peruggia, walked out of the museum with the unframed masterpiece hidden under his workman's smock. Museum staff did not notice the portrait's disappearance until the following day, when artist Louis Béroud arrived to paint a study of the gallery and found four empty iron hooks. Driven by the mistaken belief that the painting had been looted from Italy by Napoleon Bonaparte, Peruggia concealed the poplar wood panel inside a false-bottom trunk in his Paris apartment for more than two years while investigators pursued numerous dead ends, including questioning painter Pablo Picasso and poet Guillaume Apollinaire. The audacious heist transformed the Mona Lisa from an admired Renaissance portrait into an international cultural icon. Relentless global press coverage and public fascination drew record-breaking crowds to the Louvre simply to view the vacant space on the gallery wall. The two-year mystery concluded in December 1913 when Peruggia traveled to Florence and attempted to sell the painting to art dealer Alfredo Geri and Uffizi Gallery director Giovanni Poggi. After experts verified the panel's authenticity through its distinct craquelure and museum catalog stamps, Italian authorities recovered the artwork, arrested Peruggia, and briefly exhibited the masterpiece across Italy before returning it safely to the Louvre. Related Episodes: Fun Facts About the Mona Lisa Fun Facts About Leonardo da Vinci ⁠Listen Ad-Free on Patreon. ⁠ For just $3 per month, you can get ad-free versions of Fun Facts Daily, Who ARTed and Art Smart. Head over to ⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/FunFactsDailyPod⁠ if you are interested. Want to learn more? Head over to my website www.funfactsdailypod.com and be sure to listen to my other podcasts Who ARTed: Weekly Art History for All Ages or Art Smart. For family fun, check out my son's podcast Rainbow Puppy Science Lab The image used in the episode cover art is a public domain photograph of the space where the Mona Lisa had hung in 1911. Fun Facts Daily is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices