August 21st: The Day the Mona Lisa was Stolen!

The average tourist usually has one main thing on their mind when visiting the Louvre in Paris: the Mona Lisa. Millions gather around the minuscule portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, in its glass case which makes taking a decent photo of the masterpiece extremely inconvenient. Today the high level of public interest and security means the proposition of stealing this work of art would be extremely foolish. With the whole world watching, it is beyond me why anyone would attempt to steal the Mona Lisa; but it happened.

The Mona Lisa: gone!

   August 21st 1911. Before then, the painting was not as popular as today, so in fact it was the theft of da Vinci's work that increased its fame! The disappearance of the portrait was discovered when a painter, Louis Berard, walked through the Salon Carre in the Louvre and noticed 4 iron pegs in the place of da Vinci's piece. Alarms were raised, but the museum claimed the painting was being photographed for marketing purposes. This was not the case, however, and once discovered that, after 5 years of being on show at the museum, the Mona Lisa had been stolen, sheer panic set in.

    The Louvre closed its doors to the public for an entire week whilst investigations took place. There were many suspects, but it took two years to discover the true thief! It turned out that a Louvre employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, had removed the painting from the wall during the day, concealing it in a broom cupboard. Of course these were the days before CCTV, but Peruggia claimed to have smuggled the painting home under his coat at the end of the day...must have been a pretty huge coat! His motives are debatable: some say he was an Italian patriot who believed da Vinci's work should be returned to Italy for displaying; yet others say he was encouraged by a friend who would copy the original painting and successfully make lots of money whilst the Mona Lisa was missing for those two years. After keeping it in his apartment for 2 years, Peruggia tried to sell it in Florence but was caught (no surprises) and served 6 months imprisonment for his crime. He was commended for his patriotism in Italy, but the Mona Lisa was safely returned to the Louvre in 1913.

   Several attempts have been made since to destroy the painting too: these include splashing acid and throwing a rock at it in 1956; then after the bullet-proof glass was installed for its protection, a woman sprayed red paint over it in protest in 1974; and most recently, in 2009, a Russian woman threw a terracotta mug souvenir from the Louvre at the painting, which shattered. Although all these attempts have left the painting undamaged, people have used the Mona Lisa to attract attention for their beliefs and motives. What do you think? Is it acceptable to attempt to destroy one the most famous and valued pieces of art in history, for whatever reason?