The affair of the century · 1911 -1914
The flight of the Mona Lisa in 1911
A painting taken down on a Monday morning, an investigation full of false leads and an Italian worker found twenty-eight months later: this is how a news item transformed an admired masterpiece into a global face.
The essential point
Fame didn't come from nothing
Before 1911, The Mona Lisa was already an esteemed work of artists, writers and connoisseurs. Theft did not create its quality: it changed the scale of its fame.
For twenty-eight months, French and foreign newspapers reproduced his face, recounted the investigation, invented leads and followed each twist. Millions of readers who did not frequent the Louvre then learned to recognize the smile of the Mona Lisa.
Before disappearance
A small painting in a large Salon Carré
Louis Béroud painted this view of the Louvre in 1911: The Mona Lisa appears among large formats, recently protected by a window. The device has nothing of current surveillance. The rooms close on certain days, employees move freely and the works are regularly moved to be photographed.
Louis Béroud, view of the Salon Carré, 1911. This painting is particularly valuable for understanding the material context of the flight.
Reconstruction
A Monday morning at the Louvre
The museum is closed to the public
Closing day provides a less supervised working environment. Vincenzo Peruggia knows the place: he participated, as a glazier worker, in installing protection in front of paintings.
The paint is removed
The stories agree on the essential: the sign is unhooked, separated from its frame and its protection, then taken away. The exact details of the journey and the possible existence of accomplices remain discussed.
The frame is abandoned
The frame and certain protective elements are found on a service staircase. Small wood painting is easier to hide than a modern visitor would imagine.
Peruggia disappears in Paris
Dressed like museum workers according to reconstructions, he blends into the building activity. The Mona Lisa then remained hidden in her belongings in Paris for more than two years.
Tuesday August 22
Louis Béroud finds an empty wall
The painter Louis Béroud comes to work in the rooms. Instead of La Mona Lisa, he only sees the hooks or the location left empty. We first assume that the work was taken down for a photographic session: this type of movement is not exceptional.
When the photographic service confirms that it does not hold the painting, the alert becomes general. The Louvre closes, the police search the building and examine the abandoned frame. The news is soon in all the newspapers.
It's not just the absence of a painting: it's the image of this void that sets the case.
An imperfect investigation
Clues, errors and public pressure
An exploitable footprint, but poorly cross-checked
Investigators note traces of abandoned elements. However, the comparison files and procedures remain fragmentary, which contributes to allowing Peruggia to pass through.
Former workers are questioned without result
Peruggia is known to the site and will be questioned. However, his profile does not trigger the decisive verification which could have brought his identity closer to the clues earlier.
The security of the museum is publicly contested
Theft exposes the flaws of an immense establishment: movement of workers, movement of works, unequal controls and inventories difficult to synchronize.
Arrested in 1913
The thief identified
Vincenzo Peruggia, a man already involved in the investigation
An Italian based in Paris, Peruggia worked for the company responsible for installing protective glass at the Louvre. This experience gives him concrete knowledge of the settings, access and uses of the museum.
He's not a spectacular burglar. His advantage is having the appearance and gestures of an authorized worker.
He claims to act out of patriotism. After his arrest, he said he wanted to return the work to Italy.
This justification is historically misleading. Leonardo had brought the work to France, where it entered the royal collection; it was not Napoleonic loot.
The question of accomplices remains debated. Peruggia is the convicted thief, but not all the circumstances of the act are definitively established.
False leads
Apollinaire, Picasso and the suspected avant-garde
The investigation gets carried away when a relative of Guillaume Apollinaire is linked to previous thefts of small antiques from the Louvre. The poet was arrested on September 7, 1911 and detained for about a week. Pablo Picasso, who had bought statuettes from the museum without always knowing their origin clearly, was also drawn into the affair.
These episodes momentarily associate theft with the artistic avant-garde, but neither Apollinaire nor Picasso stole The Mona Lisa. Their presence in the story above all shows the pressure exerted on a police force which must produce suspects in the face of national emotion.
Florence, December 1913
The trap closes at an art dealer
Under an assumed name, Peruggia contacted the Florentine antiquary Alfredo Geri and offered to return the painting to Italy for a reward. Geri involves Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi. The panel, its marks and its material history make it possible to recognize the original.
Photograph of the return of the work to the Louvre in 1914. The crowd, officials and the press transformed the return into a ceremony.
The Media Effect
Why the affair makes it global
Theft brings together four mechanisms that the mass culture of the early 20th century knows how to amplify: an instantly recognizable face, an open enigma, famous suspects and a spectacular outcome.
The face in all the newspapers
To find the painting, we print our image. This police broadcast becomes an involuntary global campaign.
Twenty-eight months without response
Absence gives newspapers time to produce rumors, caricatures, songs and hypotheses.
Poet, painter, worker and police officers
The affair offers a distribution worthy of a novel: Apollinaire, Picasso, Peruggia and those responsible for the Louvre.
A heroine found
The exhibition in Italy then the return to Paris give the story a collective, visible and celebrated ending.
Before and today
From the Salon Carré to the Salle des Estates
The original panel
Painted on a poplar panel of modest dimensions, The Mona Lisa could be physically transported. Its current protection responds to a completely different scale of risk and attendance.
A presentation that has become global
Air-conditioned display case, safety distance and organized visitor flow: the contemporary device also tells the story of threats, from theft to conservation.
Myths and facts
Six statements scrutinized
"The theft made the Mona Lisa famous."
She was already admired, but the affair gave her unprecedented popular and international notoriety.
"Napoleon had stolen the painting from Italy."
The work entered the French royal collection after Leonardo's stay in France, well before the Napoleonic campaigns.
"Picasso stole the Mona Lisa."
His name appears because of statuettes formerly taken from the Louvre, not as the author of the theft of the painting.
"Peruggia was part of a big conspiracy."
Theories of sponsors and forgeries still circulate, without decisive historical proof.
"His knowledge of the Louvre made theft possible."
His work as a glazier gives him a concrete familiarity with the building and the protections.
"Visitors came to see the empty square."
The absence of the painting has become a spectacle and a symbol of the helplessness of the museum.
After investigation, look at the work
Find the presence of the Mona Lisa
Our hand-painted oil reproduction allows you to find the modeling of the face, the transitions of the sfumato and the depth of the landscape on a real pictorial surface.
Discover the reproduction of The Mona Lisa See the Leonardo da Vinci collectionFrequently asked questions
The Mona Lisa flight in brief
Who stole the Mona Lisa in 1911?
Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker who worked installing windows at the Louvre, was arrested in possession of the painting and then convicted in 1914.
When was the Mona Lisa stolen?
The theft took place on Monday August 21, 1911, the day the museum closed. The disappearance was noted the next day, Tuesday August 22.
How long did the Mona Lisa disappear?
Approximately twenty-eight months: from August 21, 1911 to its recovery in Florence on December 12, 1913.
Why did Peruggia steal the painting?
He claims to have wanted to return the work to Italy. This patriotic motive is his declaration; it proves neither the absence of financial interest nor the existence of a more complex plan.
Was Picasso suspected?
His name was linked to the investigation because he had acquired statuettes previously stolen from the Louvre. He was not found responsible for the theft of The Mona Lisa.
Where was the Mona Lisa found?
In Florence, after Peruggia offered the painting to the merchant Alfredo Geri. Giovanni Poggi, director of the Offices, participated in its authentication.
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