Guernica

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

This painting by Pablo Picasso is his response to the horrific bombing by German and Italian forces during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.      

During the occupation of Paris during World War II Picasso kept a large photo of the painting on his studio wall.   At some point a Nazi officer saw it and said to Picasso, “So….you did that?”

Picasso answer, “No, YOU did that.”

Here's a great PBS page with information about this important work of art.

Famous Art Thefts: Mona Lisa

Vicenzo Peruggia, a former Louve employee actually walked out of the museum with the Mona Lisa under his clothes on August 21, 1911. 

How he removed the painting from its frame with no notice is beyond me. 

Officials questioned all sorts of people including Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet who had at once time called for the Louvre to be “burnt down.”   He was arrested and then had the audacity to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso…….yes, that one.

Picasso was questioned but allowed to go.

Peruggia was fingered for the crime when he contacted a prominent art dealer in Florence in December, 1913 claiming he had a famous painting for sale. 

He had stolen the Mona Lisa because he wanted the painting returned to Itay – its rightful place in his opinion.

Once retrieved from Peruggia, the painting went on a whirlwind tour of Italy before being returned to the Louvre. 

Many of Peruggia’s Italian countrymen hailed him as a hero.   Back in France he was sentenced to a jail term of six months.