The history of the abduction of the Mona Lisa
• History of the Mona Lisa's abduction
August 22, 1911 the artist Louis Beru walked into the most famous museum in Paris and went to Salon Cara, where he hung a painting by Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa." Reaching the right place, I took a meso staring at a blank wall, where four steel brackets stuck. He rubbed his eyes, but nothing had changed. "What? Out of place? Maybe it suffered shoot for publicity purposes. And now we have lunch." Just a few hours later, Louis reached out to the Louvre director, and began litigation. It turned out - the photo is not the photographer.
raised a running. Louvre immediately closed to guests (and not open throughout the week). The Minister looked everywhere - under the couches, under the stairs, washrooms: no one does not believe that "Mona Lisa", you can easily do it that way and to make the building, where hundreds people are working. However, the pattern was not found. Paris police officially announced - a masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, written by him between 1503 and 1506 years, disappeared without a trace .. The most terrible thing - it was not even any idea what might have happened to him. the kidnapper will not leave a single piece of evidence.
It started with a real shock. The government dismissed the entire Louvre administration and closed the border to prevent the export of the "Mona Lisa" (as it turned out, it did not help). He was arrested by the French poet Guillaume Appolinaire, in an interview for allowing the statement - "I am pleased to be burned at the Louvre." Was summoned to the site of Pablo Picasso (and then not so well-known) as a friend Appolinaire - Can't Picasso, as an artist, steal the painting for exciting personal inspirations? Newspaper surpassing versions, the theme of "Mona Lisa" does not come from pages. Security services have been accused of stealing from a longtime enemy - Imperial Germany, of course, Russian gendarmes and international crime syndicates.
For 2 years the face of "Mona Lisa" a thousand decorated front pages. Even a terrible catastrophe on the scale of the "Titanic" in 1912 with a major loss of human life was not pushed out by the press entitled "theft of the century". The audience snapping up postcards with a picture of a smiling mysteriously medieval girl dancer in "Moulin Rouge" is wearing a Mona Lisa face mask. It is hard to believe that in order to steal the popular today the picture is known only in a narrow circle of connoisseurs of art: experts do not consider it a successful work of Leonardo da Vinci. Now about the Mona Lisa has become the world. However, the search turned out to be futile. The picture is gone.
A masterpiece stolen from the Louvre, a former museum employee - 30-year-old Italian, named Vincenzo Perugia. At first, police believe the thief hid in a closet early, waited there overnight and in the morning without a witness taking the picture. But this is much more common. Vincenzo Louvre knew the inside out, so at 7am on August 21, 1911, he calmly walked through the door, intended for employees - dressed in the white uniform of a museum. Every Monday, the Louvre is closed to visitors, the hall is empty - and this facilitated Vincenzo's work. He took off without problems, "Mona Lisa" from the wall and he wrapped a cloth and left the building. On the street it is also considered shop merchant, which is why someone running from museums, holding a suspicious package. However, the testimony of the sellers did not help the police - as well as fingerprinting finger thieves.
The most important thing - as part of the search of former and current police employees and the Louvre is in a removable apartment Perugia. He was very confident and explained - he worked all day in a completely different place, away from the museum. Peace officials took his word and left, and Vincenzo, along with a stolen painting, laughing, he moved to Italy. The additional thief behavior resembles the classic style maniac kidnapper. For two years he kept a picture in a box under the bed and took it out from there for intimate conversation, pre zaperevshis key. Communication is getting closer, and eventually in Perugia "nothing is wrong" - it seems to him that the Mona Lisa manages, subordinates and gives orders.
The thief fell into complete disorder. He wanted to get rid of the "Mona Lisa" to get rich and sail in South America. However, familiar art collectors he did not have, and therefore by Vincenzo took a completely unexpected decision. He came to Alfredo Geri, owner of an art gallery in Florence and offered to buy the painting. Jerry contacted the director of the Uffizi museum Giovanni Poggi, who was shocked confirmed - in front of them a real masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. Both took the "Mona Lisa" and called the police to delay the thief in a hotel room. "Mona Lisa" solemn driver was returned to France, where he took his place in the Louvre under the clock security of exhibitions throughout Italy, accompanied by delight and admiration of the public, and 4 January 1914. The big picture is not stealing.
The Italian received a "theft of the century" just six months in prison and then released voluntarily giving interviews. He said that aimed at creating Leonardo's return to their homeland - as the "Mona Lisa", along with other Italian works of art were stolen by Napoleon. Emperor of France at the beginning of the XIX century actually took away from the busy Italy with a bunch of pictures of the Louvre, but the "Mona Lisa" of them was not: Leonardo da Vinci himself released his masterpiece as a gift to French king Francis the First, when he worked in the Paris court painter. This is what happened 250 years before Napoleon was born, so that the emperor here would do exactly that to them. However, Italian journalists hotly touted as a hero of Perugia in Italy.
The second version of "Theft of the Century" - the alleged kidnapping ordered Argentine adventurer "Marquis" Eduardo de Valfierno, together with restorer Yves Shadron advance produce six copies of "Mona Lisa" and plan and then sell them to rich collectors around the world - as "the most stolen paintings." However, Vincenzo Perugia denied any lesser known and talking to Valfierno, but who knows, whatever it really is ... Sam Vincenzo Perugia dies October 8, 1925, at the age of 44 - his birthday. He hoped earlier that his funeral would gather all of Italy: but the death of "the thief of the century" newspaper hardly reported. It is funny that the "Mona Lisa" would not be so well known around the world, if not for a lone thief trick. Now such an event is probably called "viral advertising".
