The man who stole the Mona Lisa was caught, exactly a century ago; two years after vanishing with the masterpiece. Although today La Joconde is easily the most famous painting in the world, it took a theft to cement its status.
Vincenzo Peruggia was not the kind of criminal mastermind that makes up the majority of art thieves in Hollywood films. He was not a genius catburglar.
He managed to walk into the Louvre in Paris and walk out with the Leonardo painting after minimal preparation. But his theft created a sensation.
It was a Monday – 21 August 1911 – a day when the museum was closed. Once it became clear the following day that the painting had been stolen, the police got to work, and the museum was shut down for a week amid a scandal.
La Joconde – as the French typically dubbed the Mona Lisa – vanished for more than two years. It was recovered on 10 December 1913, when Peruggia was caught after handing the painting to Alfredo Geri, an antique dealer in Florence.
“This was the single most famous property theft outside war time,” says Noah Charney, author of The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World’s Most Famous Painting.
Read the entire article here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25241576
Source : BBC News – 9th of december 2013
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