The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-08
STILL LOOKING
FOR MONA LISA
French Government Is Determined TO
Regain Lost Portrait and
Hang Il in the
Gallery.
ONLY THREE THEORIES
Secret Service is Making Harder At
tempt to Find Stolen Painting
Than on Any 9th
er Case.


respondent of the United Press.1
PARIS, Oct. Just as sure as the
portrait of Mona Lisa still exists, the
French government will find it and re-
store 1t to its place on the north wall
of the famous Salon Carres at the
Louvre whence 1t was stolen.
One hears little these days of the
smiling face of La Joconde' the Da
vinci masterpiece. The public. notori-
ously tickle, appears to have forgot
ten. But according to we'll informed
parsonage not unfamiliar with the do
ings of the government here, the SEQ
ret police are working harder and
more determined than ever. No money
obstacles will bar the way. Fortunes
will be spent unless the picture is
quickly found.
II necessary the entire lives of cele-
brated detectives will be consecrated
to the search. For France, Mona Lii
sa" promises to become sort OF Holy
Grail, the object Of never-ending
search. But the government ia optimis-
tic, and it is known here tina. the
hunt will never end until the picture
is turned up, or uncontroyertible proof
is found that it has been destroyed
When the mysterious-faced lady in
the portrait once more turns her cyni.
cal smile upon the tourists who flood
the Louvre-if ever she does this thing
truth will have story to tell far
more romantic sounding than romance
itself.
After all the known facts we're sifr-
ed through the net of the law, only
three theories remained. An expert
thief stole the picture and sold it for
profit or is holding it for ransom
or some former employee of the Louvre
discharged, and ranking with hatred
and desire to be revenged upon the ex
Director Homolle, lifted the painting
and destroyed or hid it as a mode OF
vengeance; or some mentally, badly
unbalanced artist, enamoured of the
charms of the lady in the picture
stole 1t so that he alone might enjoy
| her strange loneliness. Each theory
! has its supporters. The last is ro
mantle but not at all impossible, for
many are the love letters received al
the Louvre directed to Mona Lisa,
/ the writer's claiming to be hopelessly
| in love with and ready to die for Da
Vinci's picture-lady. The second is
commonplaceness itself and not un
! likely; while the first theory mention
+! ed is the commonly accepted one, in
spite of the fact that at first newspa
pers declared man must be fool to
1 hope to profit by such theft
/ To prove, however, that a thief
might have been longer of sight than
| his critics, Henri Rochefort, one OF
the protectors" of the Louvre and an
art lover of international reputation
| tried to get the friends of the Louvre
to offer million francs and immu
nifty for the return of the picture
While this suggestion was turned
down, it met with this fate simply be
cause of the fear of what the result OF
such precedent might be- Even al
that it is probable that the thief might
make very profitable money bargain
with some one not officially connect
ed with the government but who, a
the same time, would be acting secret
ly or openly In its interests. Many be
lieve that as soon as the theft is en-
tirely forgotten by the world the THE
will open up negotiations by means O
Intermediates.
The theory that some of the EN-
ployes at the Louvre acted in conjunc
ton with the thief, has many sup
porters. Even If this be untrue, it i,
certain that the thief himself hat
complete knowledge of the actions o
the guards, the location of unused
doorways and little used stairs, etc
He also knew that the key to the doc
leading to the little stairway wa
kept behind picture in the Salon 0
Primitives. He probably knew that i
of the IL men on duty on Monday
were usually engaged in duties which
called them away from their respes
tive usual places. BY a strange coinc
dence one of the two men retained TO
guard duty near the Mona Lisa poi
trait was named NJ. Nobody.
The French government has beel
flooded with theories and the stolel
picture has been reported as being II
America, England, Germany, Italj
and Switzerland, not to mention Paris
Versailles, Vincennes, and even new
er to have been outside of the Louyr
itself,
BY day and by night, backed by tn
golden Golfers of the French republic
the secret services best men are sti
searching. No millionaire father coul
be more untiring in his efforts to fin
a kidnapped daughter, the apple OF h
eye, than France in this hunt fc
Mona Lisa.