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The Old Fox: Case Files · Episode 2
The theft that helped make the Mona Lisa famous
How does a painting get this famous? Try losing it.
Paris, 1911: a former Louvre glazier walks out with the Mona Lisa under his smock, a passing plumber opens the door for him, and she spends two years in a trunk before he tries to sell her in Florence.
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What the fox said
Ever wondered how a painting gets this famous? Try losing it. Let's see what's on.
Paris. Monday, the twenty-first of August, 1911. The Louvre is closed to the public.
A man in a white workman's smock lifts a small painting off its hooks. The Mona Lisa.
Vincenzo Peruggia had once worked at the Louvre, and helped build her glass case.
In a service stairwell, he strips off the frame and the glass, and tucks the painting under his smock.
The door at the bottom is locked. So a passing plumber kindly opens it for him.
Nobody notices until the next day, when an artist arrives to paint her, and finds four empty hooks.
The Louvre shuts for a week. Police even question a young Picasso. He's cleared.
When it reopens, crowds queue just to stare at the empty wall.
Peruggia, meanwhile, keeps her in a trunk in his room in Paris. For more than two years.
Then, in December 1913, he offers her to an art dealer in Florence.
The dealer checks she's genuine, then calls the police. Peruggia claimed he was simply taking her home to Italy.
He served about seven months. And the theft helped make her the most famous painting on Earth.
Smile all you like. Case closed. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre on Monday 21 August 1911, a day the museum was closed; the theft was noticed the next day by a visiting painter, and the Louvre shut for a week (Wikipedia, 'Mona Lisa'; History Hit; Smithsonian Magazine).
- The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, had worked at the Louvre and helped make the painting's protective glass case; he removed the frame and glass in a service stairwell, and a plumber opened a locked door for him (History.com; Wikipedia, 'Vincenzo Peruggia').
- While the painting was missing, police arrested or questioned people who were later cleared, and crowds came to look at the empty space on the wall (Wikipedia, 'Mona Lisa'; History Hit).
- Peruggia kept the painting in a trunk in his Paris room for more than two years (Wikipedia, 'Vincenzo Peruggia'; Time).
- In December 1913 he offered it to an art dealer in Florence, who checked it with the director of the Uffizi Gallery before police arrested Peruggia; he claimed a patriotic motive (History.com; History Hit; Wikipedia).
- In June 1914 he was sentenced to a year and 15 days, reduced on appeal; accounts of the final term vary between about six and eight months (Wikipedia, 'Vincenzo Peruggia').
- The theft helped make the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world (Smithsonian Magazine, 'The Theft That Made the Mona Lisa a Masterpiece'; History.com, 'The Heist That Made the Mona Lisa Famous').
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