Why was the Mona Lisa stolen in 1911?

Many years ago I examined the theft of the Mona Lisa in this blog. So now let us re-examine the most famous painting in the universe, by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-16, to reveal a different motive from the one provided back in 2012.

Vincenzo Peruggia (above) stole his beloved Mona Lisa (below)
from the Louvre in 1911.

King Francois I placed his Mona Lisa treasure in the Louvre where it safely rested and enthralled crowds for centuries. Leonardo da Vin­ci would have been delighted. But it changed in Aug 1911. It was a quiet Sunday in Paris’ most famous museum when a short man with a moustache entered the Louvre and tiptoed to the salon where the Mona Lisa was housed. Then he hid in a broom cupboard.

In the morning, before the museum opened to the public, the man crept out, clad in the white apron uniform of Louvre emp­l­oyees. He grabbed the C16th oil paint­­ing from its location on the wall, carried it to a serv­ice stair­s, re­moved the paint­ing from its glass frame and wrap­ped it in a white sheet. Before he was able to re­m­ove the locked stair-door and escape, he was met by a pl­umber also using the stairs. With uncanny luck, the work­man assumed the brazen burglar was a fel­l­ow em­ployee who needed help. The imposter thanked the employee and exited, with the hidden painting.

Guards noticed that the painting was missing but assumed it was moved by staff. But the day after, when French artist Louis Béroud visited the museum to sketch his Mona Lisa au Louvre, he found only 4 iron pegs where the painting had hung. The Louvre was secure­ly shut down!! To inves­t­­igate the loss, detectives dusted for prints and rig­orously questioned museum staff (all cleared). The only clue was the painting’s glass frame, discarded in the stairwell!

Checkpoints were set up to search pedestrians and cars, the French bord­er was sealed and departing ships and trains sear­ched. By the time the museum re-opened 9 days later, the theft was front-page news inter­nat­ionally. When the museum ev­ent­ually reopened, thousands pour­ed in the doors to gaze on the empty wall space. The investigat­ion found 2 high-profile suspects. They arrested Guillaume Apollinaire in Sept, after linking the French poet to the earlier theft of two statuettes which his secretary stole from the Louvre. During the interrogation, Apollinaire linked another high-profile suspect to the case: Pablo Picasso, who had purchased the stolen statues in order to use them as models for his work. Police questioned both about the Mona Lisa theft, but they were cleared.

2 years later, Florentine art dealer Alfredo Geri received a let­t­er in the mail. Postmarked from Paris, the sender was someone who signed the letter as Leonard. The writer claimed he was responsible for the theft of the Mona Lisa, and that he wished to see the masterpiece back on Italian soil. Geri contacted Giovanni Poggi, Director of Uf­fizi Gallery. The pair doubted the letter’s reliability, but thought they should proc­eed with the of­fer presented in the letter. Geri in­vited the man to Florence, and the three soon met in the writ­er’s ho­tel room. An object wrapped in red silk was produced, and resp­ect­ful­ly placed upon the bed. The Florent­ines starred in dis­belief: it was the Mona Lisa!

The painting was taken to Uffizi, and the man’s asking pr­ice of 500,000 lire was agreed to. But Geri & Poggi never meant to pay the ransom for da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Instead the painting was au­th­enticated and the police called.

11th Dec 1913, the Italian immigrant Leonard was arrested at his Fl­or­entine hotel room. Vincenzo Peruggia was a former Louvre employee who had actually built Mona Lisa’s glass case. Peruggia knew the mus­eum practices, mak­ing him the perfect candidate for his art heist. [But how did no record at the Louvre include his name?]

Now here is the surprising bit. Peruggia was hailed as a national hero by the Italian people. In my first post I had said that Peruggia bel­ieved that the Mona Lisa had been stolen from Florence by Napol­eon. Thus the thief was only do­ing his patriotic duty, by returning the painting to its true home in Italy. But we need to remember that Mona Lisa had never been part of Napoleon’s art collection.

Rather Benjamin Evemy showed that Peruggia had kept the Mona Lisa in his flat in out­er Paris, hidden in the fal­se bottom of a wooden steam­er trunk. As Mona Lisa’s keep­er, Perug­gia said he fell in love with her smile and feasted his eyes on his trea­s­ure every night. It was a sexual and nationalist love, with nothing at all to do with Napoleon.

Many Italians really did joyously welcome Leonardo da Vinci’s mas­ter­piece back home to the Uffizi and the Borghese Galleries, Villa Med­ici, Farnese Palace and the Brera Museum. It was a triumphal tour of Italy, so clearly many Italians agreed with Peruggia.

Peruggia received to 13 months in prison, but ended up serving only 7 months. Due to the excellent relations between Italy and France, Pog­gi was allowed to exhibit the painting in the Uffizi until Jan 1914, along with two other masterpieces of the artist from da Vinci: The Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi. Then the Mona Lisa re­turned to the Louvre, and in the first days following its re-installation, c120,000 thankful Frenchmen visited the mus­eum. 

The Louvre welcomed the star painting home, Paris 1914 

New York Times

The sensation caused by the theft greatly helped to boost this paint­ing’s public reputation and to cement its place in the col­lective con­sc­ious­ness of Italian and French art lovers and others.

Read The Art Inquirer, August 2011 and Great Art Heists of History, in Mutual Art, June 2021.