MONA LISA WAS STOLEN !

I chose this particular event because it impressed me how an innocent action of a person, the antique dealer, can do more than all the investigations carry out by the police throughout two years in order to discover where the Mona Lisa was.

- On August, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci´s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. But the Mona Lisa wasn´t even noticed missing until the following day when a painter went to the Salon Carré, where the Mona Lisa had been on display for 5 years, to paint a painting, and realized that on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to hang, sat only 4 iron pegs.

- The painter contacted the section head of the guards who thought that the painting must be at the photographer´s. But it wasn´t. Immediately they called the police and about 60 investigators came to the Louvre. They closed the museum for 1 week.

- The most important discovery was to find the frame of the painting in a staircase, not damaged, and that the thief had some internal knowledge of the museum. But no more clues.

- Months and years went by with no news about the Mona Lisa and then the thief made contact. An antique dealer, Alfredo Geri, innocently placed an advertisement in several Italian newspapers stating that he was a buyer of art goods. Soon Geri received a letter stating that the writer was in possession of the stolen Mona Lisa. The letter was sent from a post office in Paris and was signed only as ¨Leonardo¨.

- Geri soon contacted with the director of the Uffizi museum in Firenze and they both decided that Geri would write a letter in return saying that he would need to see the painting before he could offer a price. Geri received soon an answer to arrange a meeting which was finally in Milano. When they met, Leonardo, an Italian man, stated that he wanted a half million lire for the painting and explained that he had stolen it in order to restore to Italy what Napoleon had stolen from it. Leonardo wanted the Mona Lisa to be hung at the Uffizi and never give back to France.

- Geri agreed on the price but said that the director of the Uffizi would need to see the painting before agreeing to hang it in the museum. They arranged to meet the following day. Geri contacted the police and the Uffizi. The following day when they saw the painting they recognized the Louvre seal on the back of the painting. It was the real Mona Lisa.

- Leonardo, a former worker of the Louvre hid inside the museum on Sunday knowing that on Monday the museum would be closed. Wearing the same white smock that other workers used to wear, he left the Louvre with the Mona Lisa.

- He was arrested and the Mona Lisa was returned to France after being displayed throughout Italy.