How a Daring Heist Made the Mona Lisa the Most Famous Painting in the World

The Shocking Discovery 

On August 22nd, 1911, a painter by the name of Louis Beroud walked into the Salon Carré within the Louvre Museum and began setting up his easel. He was working on a project involving Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterwork, the Mona Lisa, and had been granted permission to paint the iconic portrait. But after he’d arranged his materials and sat down to begin working, he was shocked to find that the spot on the wall in which the Mona Lisa had once hung was mysteriously empty. He quickly told the guards, who searched the building, but it was too late; the priceless painting had somehow been stolen.

A Media Frenzy

As the news became public, the press went berserk. The Mona Lisa was on the front page of every newspaper and the topic of countless articles. The sensational theft captivated the world, sparking widespread speculation and intense public interest. When the museum reopened, more people came to see the empty space where the Mona Lisa used to hang than had visited the painting the previous year. Suddenly, there was an appetite for copies of the portrait. It was reproduced on postcards, chocolate boxes, leaflets, matchboxes, and in magazines and newspapers. In its absence, the Mona Lisa became arguably the most iconic work of art in the world.

The Investigation

With the eyes of the world now upon them, the French authorities launched a massive investigation. They immediately sealed the borders and scoured every ship and train set to leave the country. At the Louvre, officers searched the massive building for clues, eventually finding the Mona Lisa’s protective glass case and wooden frame in one of the stairwells. A print was lifted from the glass but no match could be found.

As the days turned into weeks, authorities made a plea for the public's help. Rewards were offered: 25,000 francs by the Louvre, 40,000 francs by the magazine L'Illustration, and 5,000 francs by the newspaper Le Matin. They even tried to enlist the help of clairvoyants and psychics.

The investigation became flooded with tips, all of which led to nothing. Desperate, the police cast a wide net, even questioning renowned artist Pablo Picasso and poet Guillaume Apollinaire due to their interest in art theft. With no more leads, the trail went cold, and for the next two years, the Mona Lisa’s spot on the Louvre’s hallowed walls remained empty. It seemed the public might never see Da Vinci's masterwork again. That is until the fall of 1913 when a mysterious letter cracked the case wide open.

A Break in the Case

On November 29th, 1913, an antiques dealer in Florence named Alfredo Geri received a letter from someone calling themselves “Leonardo Vincenzo.” Postmarked from Paris, it promised the return of a famous Italian treasure to its homeland. All the author asked in return was 500,000 lire.

Intrigued, Geri agreed to meet the mysterious seller at a hotel in Florence, enlisting the help of Giovanni Poggi - director of the Uffizi Gallery. “Leonardo” turned out to be a small, mustachioed man named Vincenzo Peruggia. Far from the debonair art thief Geri might have imagined, Peruggia was a humble handyman who had relocated to Paris to find work. His employer? The Louvre Museum.

Peruggia led Geri and Poggi up to his dingy room. There, from an inconspicuous wooden crate hidden amongst his clothes, he pulled out the Mona Lisa. Geri and Poggi were astonished. They held the painting up to the light and found that it had the correct Louvre inventory number on the back. This was not a fake: after two years of searching, the Mona Lisa had finally been found.

Geri convinced Peruggia that he needed to take the painting back to Poggi’s gallery to confirm its authenticity. Once there, they called the police and Peruggia was quickly arrested. He freely admitted to his crime and was sentenced to just over a year in prison.

The Heist

So what drove a handyman with no previous criminal record to steal a priceless work of art? Surprisingly, it wasn’t money, or at least not at first.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), French forces looted scores of artworks and relics from Italy. In fact, Napoleon even hung the Mona Lisa on his bedroom wall at Tuileries Palace. Peruggia saw the theft of the painting as an act of vindication for his country. He believed, perhaps delusionally, that he would be lauded as a national hero when he successfully returned it.

Stealing the Mona Lisa was surprisingly easy. August 21st, 1911, was a Monday - the day of the week that the Louvre shut its doors to visitors for maintenance. Usually, there were 166 guards on duty, but on Mondays only 12. Peruggia was able to slip in undetected in his white worker's uniform and pluck the Mona Lisa from the wall, hiding it under his coat before escaping out a service stairway. He chose this piece not because it was particularly famous (because at this point it wasn’t) but because it was small, measuring 77 centimeters high and 53 centimeters wide.

Afterward, he headed back to his small apartment in the 10th arrondissement, and that’s where the Mona Lisa stayed for the next two and a half years, hidden a mere two miles away from the Louvre.

A Triumphant Return

With the news of the discovery, Mona Lisa fever returned with a vengeance, sweeping through Italy and France. There were Mona Lisa knickknacks and Mona Lisa hairdos. Ardent fans wrote love letters to the portrait. Before its return to France, the painting was exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where 30,000 people saw it in just four hours. There was a riot among those not lucky enough to make it in. In January 1914, the Mona Lisa went back on display in the Louvre.

The fame born of the robbery endures to this day. Around 10 million people line up each year to view Da Vinci’s mystery woman, now encased in bulletproof glass and guarded at all times to ensure she is never again stolen by an enterprising thief.

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