The Unpredictable Effect of Da Vinci’s Stolen Mona Lisa

Tracing the theft of an iconic painting

‘Portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo’ (between 1503 and 1506) by Leonardo da Vinci. Oil on poplar wood. Photo by Eric TERRADE on Unsplash

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.

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

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…