He could scarcely believe the ease with which he carried out the crime.
 |
| Peruggia: Mona Lisa under his arm |
On Monday 21 August, 1911, an Italian man named Vincenzo Peruggia walkedout of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa wrapped inside a white artist's smock. No one saw himsteal the world’s most famous painting; no one heard him prise it from thewall.
Peruggia slipped out unnoticed and took the painting home to hisapartment.
The greatest art theft of the 20th century could scarcely have been moresimple. That morning, Vincenzo had slipped into the Louvre disguised as a museum employee. He had then made his way to the gallery in which Leonardo da Vinci’s famous paintinghung and lifted its box frame off the wall.
 |
| 'Has anyone seen the Mona Lisa?' |
None of the Louvre’s employees noticed that the painting was missing.Fully twelve hours after it was stolen, the duty caretaker reported to his bossthat everything in the museum was in order.
No one even noticed the painting’s absence on the following morning.Paintings in the Louvre were often removed from the walls, because the museum'sphotographers were allowed to take them to their studios without having to signthem out.
The painter, Louis Béroud, arrived at the Louvre on Tuesday with theintention of sketching the Mona Lisa. He found just four iron hooks in theplace where she normally hung. He presumed a photographer had taken her andjoked with the guard: ‘When women are not with their lovers they are apt to bewith their photographers.’
 |
| Happier days |
When Mona Lisa was still missing at 11am, Béroud made enquiries to findout when she would be back. Only now, more than 24 hours after Peruggia removedthe painting, did it dawn on museum staff that she’d been stolen.
No one had any idea as to the identity of the thief and nor could theyfathom his motive: after all, it would be impossible to sell such a famouspainting.
The Louvre closed for a week: when it reopened, there was a massivequeue waiting to see the spot where the Mona Lisa used to hang.
Overnight, this moderately famous painting became an international icon.Postcards of La Gioconda’s face sold around the world. She was also featured onnumerous cigarette cards.
 |
| Missing for two years |
The French police made frantic efforts to trace the thief. Their onlyclue was a fingerprint on the glass of the discarded frame.
And this was the point at which the story acquired a strange twist thatwas to implicate Picasso in the theft.
Just a few months earlier, an eccentric bisexual Belgian named HonoréGery had visited the offices of Le Journal and sold a journalist a littlestatuette that he’d stolen from the Louvre. He also bragged about having stolenother statuettes which he’d passed to an unnamed artist friend.
Now, in the aftermath of the Mona Lisa theft, the police were informedof Gery’s crime and began investigating.
 |
| Picasso in Paris: 'not me!' |
News of the investigation came as a most unwelcome surprise to the youngPablo Picasso, then living in Paris. He was an acquaintance of Gery and wasfully aware that he had stolen statuettes from the Louvre. Worse still, Picassostill had in his possession two of the statuettes that Gery had filched. He’deven used them as models for his famous painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Now, the net closed in on Picasso: he was arrested by the Paris police.
He remained cool under intense questioning. He denied any knowledge ofGery’s crimes and said (quite truthfully) he knew nothing of the Mona Lisaheist. He was eventually released and allowed to go free. The police neverlearned about the statuettes and their Louvre enquiries reached a dead end.
 |
| Peruggia: gave himself up |
Two years were to pass before the Mona Lisa spectacularly resurfaced. InNovember, 1913 a Florentine antique dealer named Alfredo Geri received acryptic letter which said: ‘The stolen work of Leonardo da Vinci is in mypossession. It seems to belong to Italy since its painter was an Italian.’ Theletter was signed Leonardo.
Geri eventually got to meet ‘Leonardo’ and to see the Mona Lisa.Peruggia even allowed Geri have the painting authenticated. It was not longbefore news reached the press that the Mona Lisa had been found.
 |
| Geri: found the masterpiece |
Perruggia was arrested, tried in Florence and found guilty: he told thecourt that his sole motive for stealing the picture was to return her to Italy.She was to be recompense for all the Italian paintings stolen by Napoleon.
The judge viewed Peruggia as a harmless fool. He received a sentence ofone year and 15 days in jail. Shortly afterwards, his sentence was overturned.He was released and allowed to walk free.
The biggest winner in the whole sorry saga was the Louvre: it now founditself with a world famous painting to hang on its walls.
Peruggia’s extraordinary theft had turned the Mona Lisa from amoderately well-known painting into an internationally recognised masterpiece.
 |
| UK paperback |
NOW PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK
Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War available here for just £5.30
And for my American readers, it is now published under the title: The Boy Who Went to War: The Story of a Reluctant German Soldier in WWII available here
 |
Newly published US edition |
'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail
