The day the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa of leonardo da vinci, was stolen from the Louvre. It was such an inconceivable crime that the Mona Lisa was not even reported missing until the next day.

Who would steal such a famous painting? Why did they do this? Was the Mona Lisa lost forever?

Discovery

They had all been talking about the glass panes that Louvre museum workers had placed in front of several of his most important paintings. Museum officials claimed it was to help protect the paintings. Especially because of recent acts of vandalism. The public and press thought the glass was too reflective.

Louis Béroud, a painter, decided to participate in the debate by painting a young French girl fixing her hair in the reflection of the windowpane in front of the Mona Lisa.

On Tuesday, August 22, 1911, Béroud entered the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré, where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years. But on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to hang, there were only four iron pegs.

Béroud contacted the head of the guards' section, who felt that the painting should be elsewhere. A few hours later, Béroud returned to the scene. It was then discovered that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The section chief and other guards did a quick search of the museum. No Mona Lisa found.

Théophile Homolle, the director of the museum, was on vacation. The curator of Egyptian antiquities was contacted. He, in turn, called the Paris police. About 60 investigators were dispatched to the Louvre shortly after noon. They closed the museum and slowly let visitors out. They then continued the search.

It was finally determined that it was true. The Mona Lisa had been stolen.

The Louvre was closed for an entire week to help with the investigation. When it reopened, a line of people stood looking solemnly at the empty wall space where the Mona Lisa once hung. An anonymous visitor left a bouquet of flowers.

the clues

Unfortunately, there wasn't much evidence. The most important discovery was found on the first day of the investigation. About an hour after the 60 investigators began searching the Louvre, they found the controversial Mona Lisa glass plate and frame on a staircase.

The frame, donated by the Countess of Béarn two years earlier, was undamaged. Investigators speculated that the burglar took the painting from the wall, entered the staircase, removed the painting from the frame and then left the museum unnoticed. But when did all this happen?

Investigators began interviewing guards and workers to determine when the Mona Lisa disappeared. One worker recalled seeing the painting around 7 am on Monday morning (the day before it was discovered missing). However, he noticed that she was gone when he passed the Salon Carré an hour later.

He had thought that a museum employee had moved the painting.

Further research found that the usual guard at Salon Carré was at home (one of his children had the measles). His replacement admitted to leaving his post for a few minutes, around 8 am, to smoke a cigarette. All of this evidence pointed to the theft taking place between 7:00 and 8:30 am on Monday morning.

investigating the theft

On Mondays, the Louvre was closed for cleaning. So this was an inside job? Approximately 800 people entered the Salon Carré on Monday morning.

Roaming throughout the museum were museum staff, guards, workmen, cleaners and photographers. Interviews with these people yielded very little information. One person thought they saw a stranger leave, but was unable to match the stranger's face to photos at the police station.

Investigators brought in Alphonse Bertillon, a famous fingerprint expert. He found a fingerprint on the Mona Lisa's frame, but couldn't match it to any of his files.

There was scaffolding against one side of the museum that was there to aid in the installation of an elevator. This could have given a would-be thief access to the museum.

Aside from believing that the thief had to have at least some insider knowledge of the museum, there really wasn't much evidence.

Who stole Mona Lisa?

Rumors and theories about the thief's identity and motive spread like wildfire. Some French blamed the Germans. They believed the theft was a ploy to demoralize their country. Some Germans thought it was a ploy by the French to distract themselves from international concerns.

On September 7, 1911, 17 days after the robbery, the French arrested Guillaume Apollinaire. Five days later he was released. Although Apollinaire was a friend of Géry Piéret, someone who had stolen artifacts from right under the noses of the guards for a good At the time, there was no evidence that he had any knowledge or that he was in any way involved in the theft of the Mona Lisa.

Although the public was restless and investigators were looking, the Mona Lisa did not appear. Weeks passed. Months passed. So the years passed. The latest theory was that the painting had been accidentally destroyed during a cleanup and the museum was using the idea of ​​a theft as a cover-up.

Two years passed with no word of Mona Lisa's whereabouts. And then the thief made contact.

The Mona Lisa Thief Makes Contact

In the fall of 1913, two years after the Mona Lisa was stolen, Alfredo Geri, a renowned antiques dealer, innocently placed an advertisement in several Italian newspapers, claiming that he was “a buyer of art objects from all over the world”. type".

Shortly after he placed the ad, Geri received a letter dated November 29, 1913, which claimed that the person was in possession of the stolen Mona Lisa. The letter had a post office box in Paris and was signed simply “Leonardo”.

Although Geri thought he was dealing with someone who had a copy instead of the real Mona Lisa, he contacted Commander Giovanni Poggi, director of the Galleria degli Uffizi. Together they decided to have Geri write a letter saying he would need to see the painting before he could offer a price.

Another letter arrived almost immediately asking Geri to come to Paris to see the painting. Geri responded, stating that he couldn't come to Paris, but instead arranged to meet in Milan on December 22nd.

The meeting

On December 10, 1913, an Italian man with a mustache showed up at Geri's sales office in Florence. After waiting for other customers to leave, the stranger told Geri that he was Leonardo Vincenzo and that he had the Mona Lisa in his hotel room.

Leonardo stated that he wanted half a million lire for the painting. Leonardo explained that he had stolen the painting to restore to Italy what had been stolen by Napoleon. So Leonardo made the stipulation that the Mona Lisa would stay in the Uffizi and would never be returned to France.

With a quick, clear thought, Geri agreed to the price. However, he said the director of the Uffizi would like to see the painting before agreeing to hang it in the museum. Leonardo then suggested that they meet at his hotel room the next day.

Upon leaving, Geri contacted the police and the Uffizi museum.

The Return of Mona Lisa

The next day, Geri and Poggi (the museum director) showed up at Leonardo's hotel room. Leonardo took out a wooden trunk. After opening the trunk, Leonardo took out a pair of underwear, some old shoes and a shirt. So Leonardo removed a false bottom. There was the Mona Lisa.

Geri and the museum director noticed and recognized the Louvre seal on the back of the painting. This was obviously the real Mona Lisa.

The museum director said he would need to compare the painting with other works by Leonardo da Vinci. They then left with the painting.

Leonardo Vincenzo, whose real name was Vincenzo Peruggia, was arrested. The robbery story was actually much simpler than many theorized. Vincenzo Peruggia, born in Italy, had worked in Paris, at the Louvre, in 1908.

Still known to many of the guards, Peruggia entered the museum, saw the empty Salon Carré, took the Mona Lisa, went to the stairs, took the painting out of the frame, and left the museum with the Mona Lisa under her apron. painter.

Peruggia did not have a plan to dispose of the painting. His only aim was to return her to Italy.

The public went crazy with the news of the appearance of Mona Lisa. The painting was exhibited throughout Italy before being returned to France on December 30, 1913.