Robbery of the century: the incredible story of the Mona Lisa kidnapping

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

106 years ago, a crime was committed that went down in history as the robbery of the century: On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre … The French government, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the anarchists, and millionaires, and avant-garde artists were accused of this. However, the perpetrator was not an anarchist, an artist, or a mental patient. The solution was very close, but it was possible to return the picture only 2 years later.

The theft became known the next day, when an artist-restorer came to the Louvre to make a copy of the Mona Lisa, but did not find the painting in its usual place. All exits from the Louvre were immediately blocked, a search was carried out, which, alas, did not give any results. The case was entrusted to one of the best French detectives - Alphonse Bertillon. Suspicion fell on museum workers, including the director, who claimed in a recent interview that stealing the Mona Lisa was as unrealistic as stealing the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral. The jokers were sarcastic: "Now the Eiffel Tower is next!"

Bertillon used an anthropometric method: each suspect was measured for height, head volume, length of arms and legs, etc. The indicators were compared with the data of the criminals entered in the card index - and thus the attacker was identified. Unless, of course, he was a repeat offender. There was one more thing: there were about 100 thousand criminals in Bertillon's file cabinet, and it took months to process the data.

At the same time, the founder of the anthropometric method Bertillon considered fingerprinting to be a pseudoscientific method, which played a fatal role in this detective story. The fact is that on the side staircase, which was used only by the servants of the Louvre, they found an empty frame of the Mona Lisa, on which a trace of paint with a fingerprint was visible. And in the police database on this fingerprint it was possible to find an intruder who previously had problems with the law.

However, Bertillon was right about one thing: an employee of the Louvre was really involved in the abduction of the Mona Lisa. A young Italian Vincenzo Perugia, shortly before the incident, got a job at the museum as a seasonal worker. He was a glazier and made a protective screen for da Vinci's great canvas. And then, on Monday, when there were no visitors in the Louvre, he entered the hall, removed the painting from the wall, went out onto the side stairs, took it out of the frame, wrapped it in a jacket and calmly left the museum.

The French press accused the Germans of provocation: the Kaiser allegedly ordered the stealing of the La Gioconda in order to demonstrate the weakness of France. The German press responded by blaming the French for wanting to start the war. Both those and others were far from the truth. The same as those who accused the avant-garde artists, led by Picasso, who declared that no one needed classical painting. Among the suspects was also the Argentinean collector Eduardo de Valfierno, who, shortly before the kidnapping, ordered 6 copies of the Mona Lisa. He sold all copies, passing them off as the stolen original. According to some reports, it was he who organized the kidnapping of the painting, and Perugia became just a performer. Having earned millions from forgeries, Valfierno disappeared - he no longer needed the original.

Whoever was the true organizer of the crime, the perpetrator had to get rid of the stolen on his own. It was then that everything was revealed. In December 1913 g.the Florentine antiquarian received a letter from France with an offer to buy Da Vinci's La Gioconda. The antiquary invited him to meet, and soon a young man arrived in Florence, declaring that he had decided to return to his homeland a work of Italian art stolen by the French. The antiquary carried out an examination and, after making sure of the authenticity of the painting, turned to the police.

Vincenzo Perugia did not deny his guilt and confessed that he committed the theft for the sole purpose of restoring historical justice. He wanted to return to the Italians what was rightfully theirs. And since the trial took place in Florence, his arguments took effect: the criminal was sentenced to only one year in prison. "Mona Lisa" was exhibited in museums in Italy for another six months, and then returned to France. But there are still those who doubt that the original returned to the Louvre, and not a copy of the famous masterpiece.

And recently, a commotion arose in the scientific world: scientists announced that they were found the remains of Mona Lisa