This image shows the room at the Louvre after the theft of the work. The painting was placed between a Titian and a Correggio.
The theft of the Mona Lisa inspired several funny images. At the left, “Je vais retrouver mon Vinci” shows the Gioconda making fun of those who are trying to find her. At the right, the Mona Lisa being rescued by two officers.
100 years since the theft of the Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci’s famous ‘Gioconda’ or ‘Mona Lisa’ was stolen from the Louvre 100 years ago on August 21. We make a brief review of the story.]]>
August 21, 2011, source: theartwolf.com
The most famous case of art theft, the theft of the most famous work of art in the world -the ‘Gioconda’ or ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci- happened in 1911 when a museum employee entered the Louvre, picked up the painting, removing it from its frame, and left the museum with the painting hidden inside his clothes.
The investigation
After discovering the theft, the French police began a somewhat clueless investigation, interrogating Guillaume Apollinaire and even Pablo Picasso as suspects, since both were frequent visitors to the museum. For Picasso, who was then 29 years old, the suspicion was quite high because the artist had been previously investigated for the theft of a group of Iberian figures.
The culprit: good thief or bad thief?
A few months later, the French police received a letter from the Uffizi Gallery in Italy, reporting that Italian police had recovered the painting and arrested the employee, Vincenzo Perugia, who had carried the work to Italy, convinced that Leonardo’s masterpiece belonged to the Italian people. Perugia was seen by many as a patriotic hero, and spent just 6 months in prison.
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