The theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 is one of the art world’s most sensational crimes. The Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece was taken, almost in plain sight, from its place in the Louvre, Paris, with very few clues as to the identity of its thief left behind. In this special blog, we will tell the story of the theft of the Mona Lisa through our newspapers, as the crime filled newspaper columns across the world. We will draw on …
Mona Lisa
On this day in 1911, somebody stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was a very famous theft, and even people like Pablo Picasso and the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire were pulled in for questioning by the police. It was only two years later that the truth emerged – the painting had been stolen by a Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia – he was sentenced to six months in jail for the crime. The story we’ve posted …