August 21: Vincenzo Peruggia Steals the Mona Lisa (1911)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who work in art galleries and museums.
History Note
Many talented individuals in Europe exhibited artistic skill and developed new techniques during a period known as the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) lived at the height of the Renaissance in what is now Italy. He enjoyed color, nature, anatomy, and other areas of human life and the world around him. One of the most famous works of art in the world is his painting known as the Mona Lisa.
Leonardo worked for a few years in France and died there in 1519. King Francis I of France purchased the Mona Lisa and kept it in the royal collection. After the French Revolution, the painting became part of the collection of the Louvre, a museum in Paris.
Vincenzo Perrugia was an Italian handyman who worked for a while at the Louvre. One of his jobs was making a glass cover for the Mona Lisa. Perrugia decided that he wanted to return the painting to Italy, even though it had been in France for most of its existence.
One evening Perrugia went to the Louvre and hid in a closet overnight, likely with two accomplices. The next morning, before the museum opened, they removed the painting from the wall and slipped out of the museum undetected.
Museum staff did not realize that the painting was gone for a full day. When they finally noticed, authorities launched an investigation that lasted for two years and received tips from around the world. Meanwhile, Perrugia kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment in Paris.
In 1913 Perrugia finally tried to sell the painting to an art dealer in Italy. That led to his arrest and to the return of the painting to the Louvre.
All of the public attention after its theft helped turn the Mona Lisa from a lovely Renaissance painting into the cultural icon that it is today.
This photo shows the empty space in the Louvre after the theft of the Mona Lisa. Image courtesy Century Magazine (February 1914).
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