At a glance
The 1911 theft is the type case of an art crime whose cultural afterlife dwarfs its legal one: one man convicted, one painting returned, a global icon born in the empty space. The New York Times and the London dailies ran the empty-wall story as a serial in 1911–13, complete with false sightings. English readers met the Mona Lisa as a missing-person case before many of them had seen a good reproduction.
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1911 Mona Lisa theft · paras 2
Compared with Gardner, this file has a recovered object and a named convict. Compared with the Great Train Robbery, the cash value in 1911 was not the point: the panel was already unsaleable on an open market. The scale score in this atlas is about a single work, not a vault of stones.
1911 Mona Lisa theft · lede
The 1911 theft is the type case of an art crime whose cultural afterlife dwarfs its legal one: one man convicted, one painting returned, a global icon born in the empty space. The New York Times and the London dailies ran the empty-wall story as a serial in 1911–13, complete with false sightings. English readers met the Mona Lisa as a missing-person case before many of them had seen a good reproduction.
1911 Mona Lisa theft · paras 2
Anglophone schoolbooks still date the painting's pop celebrity to the theft more than to Walter Pater's 1869 essay. That is fair as reception history and unfair as art history: Leonardo's panel was already canonical among specialists. English true-crime retellings sometimes recast Peruggia as a lovable patriot.
1911 Mona Lisa theft · When was the Mona Lisa stolen?
On 21 August 1911, from the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. The empty wall was noticed on 22 August. The painting was missing for twenty-eight months. Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian-born former Louvre glazier and handyman. He was arrested in Florence in December 1913 after offering the panel through dealer Alfredo Geri. A Florence court convicted him.
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What is the next question after this?
Anglophone schoolbooks still date the painting's pop celebrity to the theft more than to Walter Pater's 1869 essay. That is fair as reception history and unfair as art history: Leonardo's panel was already canonical among specialists. English true-crime retellings sometimes recast Peruggia as a lovable patriot.
Does this page rank people or nations?
This is a reading check for the atlas, not personal advice, a live price, or a booking. It does not replace the full topic page.
Where is the longer entry?
On 21 August 1911, from the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. The empty wall was noticed on 22 August. The painting was missing for twenty-eight months. Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian-born former Louvre glazier and handyman. He was arrested in Florence in December 1913 after offering the panel through dealer Alfredo Geri. A Florence court convicted him.
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