If you go to the Louvre to take a look at Leonardo da Vinci Mona LisaYou will find that you cannot approach it particularly. This must partly in the always present crowd of mobile phone photographers, and even more to painting having been installed behind a wooden barrier and locked in a robust glass box. These are appropriate precautions, you could imagine, for the most famous work of art in the world. But there was still not as much security, and indeed, and indeed, no more Mona Lisa Always so popular. A little over a century ago, you can simply get out of the Louvre with.
You could do it, that is to say provided that you have knowledge of the internal operations of the Louvre, the nerve to tear a masterpiece from its walls and the will to spend a night in one of the museum cupboards. Vincenzo PeruggiaAn Italian immigrant who had worked there as a cleaner and a paint crop, had all these qualities. On the evening of Sunday August 20, 1911, Peruggia entered the Louvre with one of his coats of standard employees. The next day, he appeared in an almost empty museum, closed like the public every Monday. You can find out what happened after looking THE Primary space video abovewhich visualizes each stage of robbery and its consequences.
Why does Peruggia dare to steal the Mona Lisa In broad daylight, an act worthy of Arsène Lupine (he himself created a few years earlier)? Discovered a few years later, after having hidden the painting in the false background of a trunk almost all the time, Peruggia threw himself like an Italian patriot trying to return a piece of cultural heritage in his homeland. Another possibility, drawn up in the video, is that it was nothing more than a pawn in a larger scheme organized by the Forger Eduardo to Valfrifno, which planned to make several copies of the missing masterpiece and sell them to gullible American millionaires.
It is in any case that Saturday evening post History reported in 1932Although it may well be that, in reality, Peruggia acted alone, without higher reason than a need for money. (In a way, it would have been a more interesting story if the culprits had really been Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinairewhose unrelated possession of stolen statues at the Louvre attracted the suspicion of the police.) However, the robbery happened, this would not have happened if its object had not already been widely known, at least among art lovers. But shortly after Gioconda Was returned to her legitimate place, she has become the face of the art itself-and the reason why museums are doing things very different now that they have done in the nineteen years. The Louvre, you will notice, is now closed on Tuesday instead.
Related content:
What makes Leonardo Mona Lisa A great painting?: An explanation in 15 minutes
How Mona Lisa I barely known, suddenly the most famous painting in the world (1911)
Which makes the Mona Lisa A large painting: a deep dive
Why the biggest painting by Leonardo da Vinci is Not THE Mona Lisa
How France hid the Mona Lisa And other Louvre masterpieces during the Second World War
When Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire were accused of having stolen the Mona Lisa (1911)
Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.
