How A Daytime Heist At The Louvre 114 Years Ago Made The Mona Lisa A Legend

Louvre, one of the world's most visited and iconic museums, has a history of being robbed and that too in day time.

A team of four thieves robbed the Louvre's Apollo Gallery on Sunday around 9.30 am, shortly after the museum opened to visitors on what is one of its busiest days, stealing eight priceless and historical pieces of jewellery. The perpetrators continue to be at large and the motive is still unclear.

Over a century ago, one man pulled off a heist, often described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century, stealing what is perhaps considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Who Was Vincenzo Peruggia

The Mona Lisa was anyway iconic in its own way. Leonardo Da Vinci's most revered work, the Mona Lisa smile, or her rapturing gaze that gave birth to the 'Mona Lisa Effect', the psychological illusion that the subject of the painting is looking at you. But what catapulted it to global headlines was the theft 114 years ago.

It was the Monday morning of August 21, 1911, the weekly closure day of the Louvre during the summer holidays, when an Italian mason named Vincenzo Peruggia carried out the most astounding art heist in modern times when he stole the Mona Lisa during the day, around 7 am.

"Inimaginable" or 'unimaginable' is how Paris's newspapers reported the theft of the Mona Lisa which got people talking not just in France but also around the world.

While Sunday's theft at the Louvre left the Apollo Gallery a bit less richer, Vincenzo Peruggia lifted the Mona Lisa from the museum's Salon Carre, in a feat that was daring as well as almost admirable, especially as the famous portrait remained missing for nearly two and a half years.

Vincenzo Peruggia was born in 1881 in Dumenza, a small village in the Alps of Italy near the border with Switzerland. It is believed he relocated to Paris in 1908 and worked briefly at the Louvre, where his duties included cleaning, reframing paintings, and constructing protective cases. 

Vincenzo Peruggia stole the painting to take the Mona Lisa to Italy, while the museum was closed for cleaning. He was disguised as a museum worker, the Italian national hid overnight in a closet and took off the painting from its four iron pegs that secured it to the wall between Antonio da Correggio's Mystical Marriage and Titian's Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos frame the next morning.

He then took it to a nearby service stairway of the Sept Metres, where he removed the protective case and frame, hiding the discarded elements behind some student artworks stored on the staircase landing.

Vincenzo Peruggia was briefly trapped behind a locked service door while hiding the painting. Since he had previously worked at the Louvre, a plumber, mistaking him for a museum employee, unlocked the door for him, letting Vincenzo Peruggia out, successfully leaving the museum with the painting concealed.

The museum staff didn't even notice that the Mona Lisa was gone until the very next day, when a painter who wanted to recreate the painting noticed it was gone. The police were clueless and the whole world was talking about the robbery.

Vincenzo Peruggia, who was questioned by the police as part of the probe and was not even considered a primary suspect in the theft, hid the Mona Lisa in his Paris apartment for two years.

It wasn't until 1913 that Vincenzo Peruggia was caught. He contacted Alfredo Geri, an art dealer in Italy's Florence, under the alias Leonardo V, seeking a reward for returning the painting to Italy.

Alfredo Geri authenticated the painting with Giovanni Poggi, the director of the Uffizi Gallery, and they then informed the police. Vincenzo Peruggia was arrested at his hotel in December 1913 while attempting to sell the artwork.

Why Vincenzo Peruggia Stole The Mona Lisa

An unassuming face behind the Mona Lisa's "abduction" rattled many, especially when the painting was missing for over two years.

During his trial, Vincenzo Peruggia claimed he wanted to return the Mona Lisa to its homeland Italy, French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte stole the painting, though this was historically inaccurate.

The Italian man was sentenced to about eight months in prison, and the painting was exhibited in Italy before being returned to the Louvre.

Art historians are divided as to why Vincenzo Peruggia really stole the Mona Lisa. Was it patriotism, money, crime of passion, or revenge?

According to some, Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa out of a sense of patriotism, believing he was returning a stolen treasure to Italy. Being made to feel like an outsider as an Italian in France may have stoked the fire of patriotism as well as his awareness that many Italian artworks were looted during the Napoleonic Wars.

But, money could also be one of the motives. Vincenzo Peruggia, trying to strike a deal with Alfredo Geri, suggests so. It is said that his notebook included names of wealthy individuals.

The Theft Of The Mona Lisa, Pop Culture Style

The theft of the Mona Lisa has been documented in pop culture, be it books, films, and songs including "Mona Lisa" written in 1978 by Ivan Graziani.

An early German sound film, 1931's Der Raub der Mona Lisa (The Theft of the Mona Lisa), saw Willi Forst play the role of Vincezo Peruggia.

TV show You Are There aired an episode in 1956, titled "The Recovery of the Mona Lisa", in which Vito Scotti played the Italian thief. Vito Scott reprised the role in another TV reconstruction of the famous theft in 1963. In The Man Who Stole La Gioconda, a 2006 television miniseries, Vincezo Peruggia was portrayed by Alessandro Preziosi.

There's also a Nat King Cole song "Mona Lisa", touted to be one of the most successful songs of the 1950s.

About The Origins Of The Mona Lisa

Painted in oil on a white poplar panel, the Mona Lisa is believed to depict Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Leonardo Da Vinci, who was believed to have worked on the Mona Lisa between 1503 and 1506, never gave the painting to the Giocondo family.

After the artist's death in 1519, King Francis I of France acquired the Mona Lisa. The Louvre, headquartered in the French capital Paris, has been the home of the painting, also known as "La Gioconda" in Italian and "La Joconde" in French, since the late 18th century.

Besides being famous for its uniqueness, Mona Lisa is one of the most talked about, parodied, and visited paintings around the world. Although priceless and not for sale, the Mona Lisa holds the Guinness World Record for the highest-known painting insurance valuation in history at US USD 100 million in 1962. When adjusted for inflation, its valuation comes roughly around USD 1 billion today.