How The Mona Lisa Became A Cultural Icon

The theft of the world’s most famous painting

Where the Mona Lisa should have hung, at the Salon Carré, Louvre Museum, after having been stolen in 1911. Image source Wikimedia Commons

On August 21st 1911, the Mona Lisa painting vanished from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Three men disguised as museum staff quietly slipped away with the painting stowed beneath a blanket. They had hidden in the museum overnight. And with the stolen painting freed from its frame and glass, they…