Vincenzo perugia

1. At 7:20 on the morning of August 21, 1911, three members of the maintenance staff at the Louver paused briefly in front of the Mona Lisa. The chief of maintenance remarked to his workers, “This is the most valuable picture in the world.” Just over an hour later the three men again passed through the Salon Carre, where Leonardo's masterpiece hung, and saw that the painting was no longer in its place. The maintenance chief joked that museum officials had removed the picture for fear he and his crew would steal it. That joke soon proved to be an uncomfortably hollow one. Mona Lisa was gone.

2. Thus begins the story of the most famous art theft in history, of the most famous painting in the world, and of the man who would inevitably become the most famous art thief of all time: Vincenzo Perugia.

3. French newspapers announced the catastrophe under the banner headline “Unimaginable!” All during the weeks that followed, rumors abounded. A man carrying a blanket-covered parcel had been seen jumping onto the train for Bordeaux. A mysterious draped package had been spotted on a ship to New York, a ship to South America, a ship to Italy. The painting had been scarred with acid, had been dumped in the sea. All clues, however far-fetched, were followed up, but no trace of Mona Lisa could be found.

4. More than two years would pass before the thief surfaced. Then, in November of 1913, an art dealer in Italy received a letter from a man who signed himself "Leonard." Would the dealer like to have the Mona Lisa? Would he. Of course it was a joke. But was it? The dealer arranged to meet “Leonard” in a hotel room in Florence. “Leonard” produced a wooden box filled with junk. The junk was removed, a false bottom came out of the box, and there, wrapped in red silk and perfectly preserved, was the smiling face of Mona Lisa. The dealer swallowed his shock and phoned for the police.

5. “Leonard” was actually an Italian named Vincenzo Perugia - a house painter who had once done some contract work in the Louver. As he told the story of the theft, it was amazingly simple. On the morning in question Perugia, dressed in a workman's smock, walked into the museum, nodded to several of the other workers, and chose a moment when no one else was in the Salon Carre to unhook the painting from the wall. Then he slipped into a stairwell, removed the picture from its frame, stuck it under his smock, and walked out. Stories that Perugia had accomplices have never been proved.

6. What were the thief's motives? And why, after pulling off what can only be described as the heist of the century, did he so naively offer the painting to the Italian dealer? Perugia claimed he was motivated by patriotism. Mona Lisa was an Italian painting by an Italian artist. Believing (mistakenly) that it had been stolen by Napoleon to hang in France, he wanted to restore it to its rightful home. At the same time, however, he expected to be “rewarded” by the Italian government for his heroic and thought $ 100,000 would be a good amount. No one shared this point of view.

7. Perugia was tried, convicted, and sentenced to a year in prison. After his release he served in the army, married, settled in Paris, and operated a paint store. Soon Perugia, who had so briefly captured to world's headlines, settled back into the obscurity from which he had emerged.

8. And Mona Lisa? After a triumphal tour of several Italian museums, she was returned to France. She hangs - at least as of this writing - safely in the Louver. Romantics say her smile is even more enigmatic than before.