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Crime History, Aug. 21, 1911: Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre in heist of the century
August 21, 2013 by D.C. Crime Stories Leave a Comment

Vincenzo Peruggia On this day, Aug. 21, in 1911, the Mona Lisa painting was stolen from the Louvre Museum in what has been described as the greatest art heist of the 20th century. Vincenzo Peruggia, a former Louvre worker, hid in a storeroom on a Sunday, knowing that the Paris museum would be closed on Monday. The next morning, Peruggia, wearing white workmans smocks, removed the small painting from the frame, hid it under his clothes, and walked out with the masterpiece under his arm. The portrait had been painted around 1506 by Leonardo da Vinci. The woman with the famous smile is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant. At the time of the theft, the Mona Lisa wasnt the most visited artifact at the Louvre, but its mysterious disappearance soon made the portrait the worlds most famous art icon. For nearly two years, Peruggia hid the painting in a trunk in his apartment. When police searched his apartment and questioned him, they believed his alibi that he had been working at a different site on the day of the theft. Instead, police arrested the artist Pablo Picasso and the poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, friends of a thief who admitted to stealing from the Louvre. The painting was recovered after Peruggia tried to sell it to an Italian collector. Peruggia was arrested by police in Florence, convicted and served eight months in jail. The Mona Lisa is believed to be the best-known and most-visited work of art in the world. Scott McCabe