The Unspectacular Heist of the ‘Mona Lisa’
By: The Unlikely Techie
Tags: History, Art, Icons, Crime, Paris

The Unspectacular Heist of the ‘Mona Lisa’

Nobody cared about the painting in 1911, except for Vincenzo Peruggia

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Imagine that you have an entry on Wikipedia for one infamous reason only: you stole a Louvre painting! Not just one of the more than 35,000 works of art in the Louvre… The Mona Lisa!

I doubt that anyone would like to see the notoriety of art theft under their name, but this is precisely what Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian museum worker and artist, is known for. What we know about his life apart from his art theft is that: he was married, fought in World War I, had a daughter named Celestina, and died at the age of forty-four in France, in 1925.

The heist

Without safety glass and cameras, in 1911, it was probably a lot easier to lift a painting from a wall in the famous Louvre museum, in Paris, and hide it. However, the fact that Peruggia was able to walk out of the Louvre’s front door undetected on a Monday morning with the Mona Lisa tucked under his arm is objectively quite amusing today.

According to the historian James Zug, Parisians were probably just too drunk to notice this guy stealing a masterpiece of art. Sunday night was a prominent social night back then, and people were all a bit hungover — except, of course, Peruggia. The latter, at least according to common belief, spent the night in an art-supply closet inside the museum.

Dressed like all the other workers, he waited until no one was present in the Salon Carré, and then very quickly lifted the painting off the wall and carried it to the service staircase. It is unknown how he did this alone. Other sources assume that Peruggia had two accomplices with him, namely, the brothers Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti, young Italian handymen.

Whether he boarded the express train alone at the Quai d’Orsay or in the company of two accomplices cannot be completely determined. But one thing was very clear, after the departure of the 7:47 a.m. train he had successfully stolen the Mona Lisa.

The importance of the ‘Mona Lisa’

In today’s view, it’s particularly astonishing that in 1911 only a few recognized this painting as a masterpiece. Although it had been known among experts and the French intelligentsia that Leonardo da Vinci’s work from 1507 was magnificent, it wasn’t broadly regarded as such. Or, as Zug says: “The Mona Lisa wasn’t even the most famous painting in its gallery, let alone in the Louvre.”

Given the circumstances, it may not come as a big surprise that nobody noticed the robbery until twenty-eight hours later. Not even alarmed then, the artist who noticed the Mona Lisa missing only said that he could no longer paint as long as the Mona Lisa was missing. Since the Louvre was under renovation, he didn’t think much of it — it would return to its rightful place in due time, right?

The suspects: Pablo Picasso and J.P. Morgan

When the Louvre had to make it public that the painting wasn’t in storage because of the renovation but that it had, in fact, been stolen, the outcry was tremendous. The government fired the museum’s director, and for three weeks, the story dominated the newspapers’ front pages. Many citizens went to the Louvre to look at the blank space on the wall while flying merchants in front of the Louvre sold postcards and reproductions of the Mona Lisa.

It was a massive national scandal, further contributing to the popularity of the painting. On the list of suspects were Pablo Picasso, who had to go in for questioning, and art lover J.P. Morgan. Rumor had it that Morgan had commissioned the heist. After all, he loved art.

In the light of the impending war and deteriorating relations between Germany and France, the rumor arose that even the German Emperor could be behind the theft.

As with most rumors, none of them were right. Thus, the Mona Lisa remained untraceable.

The failed sale and the great disappointment of the public

Today, the Mona Lisa is back at the Louvre in Paris. So how did this masterpiece resurface? In short: in a hotel room in Florence.

On December 12th, 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia tried to sell the masterpiece to the art dealer Alfredo Geri. After almost three years of waiting, he wanted to get rid of the painting.

Geri received a letter signed “Leonardo” in which the scribe claimed that he wanted to “return” the painting to Italy and demanded 500,000 lire to cover his “expenses.” Geri informed Giovanni Poggi, the Uffizi Gallery director, and the two decided to look at the painting.

Happy to have found a possible buyer for the painting, Peruggia traveled to Florence and showed the painting to the art dealers. After looking closely at the painting and finding the correct inventory number of the Louvre on the back, they were sure that they were looking at the original Mona Lisa. They persuaded Peruggia to wait in his hotel for the money and called the police.

The public reaction was fierce. Italian nationalists demanded that “their” Mona Lisa should stay “at home.” Although the Italian government guaranteed that it would return the Mona Lisa to the Louvre, it didn’t do so right away. The painting went “on tour” and was exhibited in Florence, Rome, and Milan. It traveled in a specially made, padded box and with a guard of honor. Finally, the Mona Lisa returned to Paris with a grand state ceremony.

The trial against Peruggia was a disappointment for the sensationalist public because the defendant proved to be just a petty criminal, not a specialized art thief. Peruggia was sentenced to a prison term of only seven months. Two days after his trial, the First World War began, and his crime fell into oblivion.

Quite the contrary occurred for Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, the unspectacular heist of 1911 served as a catalyst. Today, the Mona Lisa is an undisputed art icon.