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.
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