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Quick answers
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.
Who took it?
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.
When did the painting return?
It was authenticated in Florence in December 1913, shown briefly in Italy and returned to the Louvre in January 1914. It has remained in the French national collection since, now in the Salle des États.
Were Picasso and Apollinaire involved?
No. Apollinaire was arrested because of an earlier, separate Louvre theft of small Iberian sculptures by an acquaintance. Picasso was questioned. Both were cleared of the Mona Lisa. The episode is a documented false lead.
Why did Peruggia say he took it?
He offered a patriotic story: that the work belonged in Italy. Leonardo had brought the portrait to France himself, and it had long been in the French royal collection. The court treated a motive speech as a motive speech, not as title to the panel.
Did the theft make the Mona Lisa famous?
It made the face universally famous. Specialists already ranked the portrait high. Two years of newspaper reproductions and a triumphant 1914 return created the modern pilgrimage picture.
The legal afterlife is a short Italian sentence and tighter Louvre staffing. The cultural afterlife is the most famous face in Western art.
That imbalance is why culturalReach sits near the top of this atlas and legalImpact does not.
Law & institutions
- Florence conviction — The binding legal result is Peruggia's judgment and short term, not a new French code named for the picture.
- Louvre staff rules — The museum reviewed who could be alone with works and how hangings were watched. Institutional practice, not a celebrity statute.
- Title unchanged — Italian display in 1913–14 did not transfer ownership. The panel remained French national property.
- Modern museum security culture — Later bulletproof glass and crowd control are descendants of fame as much as of 1911. They are practice, not the 1914 judgment.
Culture
- The wanted-poster face — Two years of newspaper reproductions taught the world the smile before most readers had been to Paris.
- 1914 pilgrimage — Return crowds invented the modern queue. Later tourism still sells that 1914 event.
- Duchamp to advertising — L.H.O.O.Q. and a century of ads assume universal recognition — the theft's longest cultural yield.
- Patriot-thief folklore — English and Italian retellings sometimes recast Peruggia as a folk hero. The court record is smaller.
Money & scale
- Unsaleable on an open market — A world-famous Louvre Leonardo could not be sold at Christie's in 1911. The 'value' of the theft was not a cash-out.
- Postcard and press economy — Reproductions and later ticketed viewing created a fame market that dwarfs Peruggia's short sentence.
- No Gardner-style reward hangover — Because the object returned, there is no standing eight-figure information offer. The file is financially closed.
Impact is a global icon and a short conviction — a recovered theft that taught the twentieth century a face.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.