Vincenzo Peruggia
Convicted thief
Italian-born former Louvre glazier and handyman. He took the panel in August 1911, kept it, and was arrested in Florence in December 1913. A court convicted him on a short sentence. He is the who of the file.
The convicted name is one former museum worker. The recovery names are a dealer and an Uffizi director.
The famous names who were questioned and cleared still occupy more English anecdotes than they deserve.
People
Alfredo Geri
Florentine dealer
Received the offer of the painting and contacted the Uffizi. His caution is the reason the recovery is a documented hand-over, not a rumour.
Giovanni Poggi
Director, Uffizi
Examined the panel and helped authenticate it as the Louvre's Leonardo. His professional act closed the object half of the case.
Guillaume Apollinaire
Poet, false lead
Arrested in September 1911 because of a separate Louvre sculpture theft by Géry Pieret. Cleared of the Mona Lisa. A lesson in how a famous gap attracts famous suspects.
Pablo Picasso
Painter, questioned and cleared
Brought in during the same 1911 panic. Not charged with taking the portrait. English retellings still drag him in as colour.
Louvre and Préfecture officials
Victim museum and Paris police
The empty-wall discovery, the two-year search and the 1914 homecoming are their file. Staffing embarrassment, not a new French art-crime code, is the institutional aftertaste.
Name Peruggia, Geri and Poggi first. The modernist cameos were cleared.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.