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August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.

The New York Times headline three days later shows the shock felt around the world.⠀ 

New York Times headline from August 24, 1911.⠀

⠀ It was a Monday morning, before the museum was even open, and three handymen from Italy, who had sneakily spent the night in a supply closet of the Louvre, emerged from their hiding place, ripped the painting from its frame, and hurried out of the museum to the nearest train station with it hidden in a blanket.⠀ ⠀ But the Mona Lisa wasn't the Louvre's most iconic painting at the time, and no one even noticed it was missing for over 28 hours! The person who first noticed it was gone was an artist who enjoyed painting in the gallery under the Mona Lisa's gaze. He figured it had just been taken to the roof to be photographed (as the museum was cataloging their objects at the time, and the best light to be had in those days was outdoor sunlight). That turned out not to be the case, and suddenly, the Mona Lisa became famous overnight beyond just the French intelligentsia as her image became reproduced in newspapers around the world.⠀ ⠀ During the course of the investigation, Pablo Picasso was implicated in the crime by the poet Apollinaire. During interrogation, Picasso reportedly cried, and was determined not to be a suspect. The real mastermind, Vincent Peruggia, had taken the Mona Lisa because he mistakenly, if patriotically, believed it had been stolen from Italy by French forces during the Napoleonic wars. After two years, the painting was too famous to sell, and he eventually agreed to return it to France for a reward. A wily art dealer was able to rescue the painting, and Peruggia was arrested, but not before he changed the course of art history by making the Mona Lisa an icon it may never have been before.⠀

A gathering around the Mona Lisa in Paris on the day of its return, January 4, 1914.

Leonardo da Vinci

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