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The Unpredictable Effect of Da Vinci’s Stolen Mona Lisa
Tracing the theft of an iconic painting
The year was 1911.
On the morning of August 21st, three men parading as museum staff quietly slipped out of the Louvre Museum in Paris with the world’s most famous painting hidden under a blanket.
Museum staff only discovered the daring theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa when they entered the Salon Carré — the room where the painting hung — and found a blank section of wall.
All they saw were the four iron pegs that once fastened the object in place.
When the alarm went out, police raced to the museum. All the doors were sealed shut, with staff and visitors detained inside — but by then the painting had already left the city.
The thieves had hidden in the museum overnight. They took the painting, removed it from its frame and glass, and hurried to the Quai d’Orsay railway station on the left bank of the Seine, boarding the 7:47 a.m. express out of Paris.
France’s borders were placed on high alert. Officials examined every vehicle that crossed the border in the hope of intersecting the lost painting.
The news went around the world, with the New York Times declaring, “60 Detectives Seek Stolen ‘Mona Lisa,’ French Public Indignant.”
In the weeks following, huge numbers of Parisians queued to witness the empty section of the wall where the famous painting once hung. It was as if the blank space had a magnetism all of its own, with everyone wondering: how could this happen?
The Paris-Journal newspaper offered 50,000 francs for the painting’s return. Soon, a tip-off from an art thief caused police to turn their attention toward one of the country’s most promising young artists: Pablo Picasso.
Picasso the Suspect
Picasso had lived in Paris since 1904, taking up residence at the Bateau-Lavoir at 13 Rue de Ravignan in Montmartre.
