Vincenzo Peruggia: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa as we know it today could be consider the most famous painting, however that was not always the case. The Mona Lisa was not a very famous painting until it was plastered all over the newspapers around the world over a 100 years ago. The reason for that being, it was missing from the Louvre. It had been stolen.

How did this happen? In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman, was hired to do work in the Louvre, He hid in a closet overnight until the perimeter was clear for him to take the painting, which was small enough for him to hide under his clothing, and then made his way out. It took about a whole day for people to realize the painting was missing, since it was common for paintings to be taken from its exhibit to be cleaned. After it had been discovered missing, newspapers all over the world published the painting on their front pages. Soon, everyone in the world would become familiar with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Police searching for the painting never thought to look into Peruggia's apartment, where the Mona Lisa was being held.

Vincenzo Peruggia

It was not seen again until 2 years later in 1913. Peruggia contacted an art dealer in Florence, Italy, to sell the Mona Lisa. They both arranged a meeting where Peruggia brought the painting along only for him to get detained since the dealer turned him in. Peruggia stole the painting so he could reunite her to her native Italy and believed he would have been considered a national hero. Instead he went to jail for 6 months. Meanwhile, the Mona Lisa was exhibited briefly in Italy before returning back to the Louvre.

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