As I’m sure all of you have heard by now, the Louvre Museum was recently the victim of a heist. CBS reports that $102 million worth of crown jewels were stolen from the famous museum on October 19th in broad daylight in just seven minutes. Since then, Gen Z has taken to TikTok to joke about the heist in every way possible, while French authorities continue to search for the perpetrators as of the time of writing. In reading about the crime, which seems straight out of a heist movie, I learned that this is in fact not the first time the Louvre has been robbed. So, I did a deep dive into the first Louvre heist in 1911, when someone stole none other than the Mona Lisa.Â
The CriminalÂ
The thief was an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia. At the time of the crime in August of 1911, Peruggia was 29 years old. According to History.com, he had previously done work at the Louvre and had even helped in constructing the protective frame for the Mona Lisa. He worked with his two brothers, Vincenzo and Michele Lancellotti, to steal the famous painting. After the heist, the media was buzzing with news of the stolen painting and authorities searched frantically. So, rather than sell or move the painting right away, Peruggia hid the famous work in his apartment in Paris for over two years. Upon his arrest, Peruggia said of the Mona Lisa, “I fell a victim to her smile and feasted my eyes on my treasure every evening… I fell in love with her.” He eventually brought the Mona Lisa back to Italy and attempted to sell the work, but was turned in to the police when buyers realized the painting was real. Peruggia claimed that he was an Italian patriot and his goal was to return the painting back to Italy since it had been stolen by Napoleon. In reality, the painting was actually sold to the King of France years before Napoleon was even born. Because of his claims of Italian patriotism, many Italians actually considered Peruggia a national hero. He was sentenced to just one year and 15 days in prison, but served only 8 months. According to World Journal Newspaper, he went on to serve in the Italian army in WWII, and spent two years as a prisoner of war after being captured by Austria-Hungary. After the war, he returned to Paris and worked under a new name, before eventually dying on his 44th birthday in 1925.Â
The CrimeÂ
Similar to the modern-day thieves, Peruggia had a very simple plan for his crime. He entered the Louvre on the evening of Sunday, August 20, 1911. He hid inside a storage closet until the next morning, when he exited into the gallery housing the Mona Lisa and other works of art before the museum was open. Disguised in an apron, the outfit worn by museum employees, he simply strode up to the painting, covered it in a white cloth, and headed out the door. When exiting the gallery, Peruggia became trapped behind a locked door, but a museum employee actually helped him open it, believing Peruggia to be an employee doing a routine inspection. For an entire day, nobody noticed the missing painting, believing it had been taken down for cleaning. A full day later, on Tuesday, August 22, a visiting artist asked where the painting was. After a frantic search, the Mona Lisa was determined to be missing and the protective glass from the painting was discovered in the stairway where Peruggia had removed it before exiting. According to History.com, the crime was announced to the world that night with a very helpful statement from museum officials stating, “The Mona Lisa is gone. Thus far we haven’t a clue as to who might have committed this crime.”Â
The SearchÂ
The missing painting set off a media frenzy in France, with a huge influx of visitors to the Louvre arriving just to stare at the empty rectangle on the wall. One of the most well-known suspects was Guillaume Apollinaire, a poet who had been arrested for his involvement with the theft of two small statues from the Louvre by his assistant. During this investigation, he was connected to none other than Pablo Picasso, who had used the stolen statues as models for a painting. Both Apollinaire and Picasso were questioned during the Mona Lisa investigation. The French public pushed many theories as to where the painting may have gone, claiming that banker J.P. Morgan had stolen it for his private collection, or that the Germans had orchestrated the plan to steal from and humiliate the French. Peruggia was questioned twice about the disappearance as an employee of the Louvre, but police did not consider him a prime suspect. Despite speculation and the continued search, the painting remained missing for two years.Â
The Legacy
Upon its return after Peruggia’s arrest, the Mona Lisa quickly became one of the most well-known works of art at the Louvre, now attracting millions of visitors every year. In just the first two days of its return in 1913, the Mona Lisa attracted over 120,000 visitors. Author Dianne Hales wrote, “The Mona Lisa had left the Louvre a work of art… She returned as public property, the first mass art icon.” Although many have not heard the story of the heist, its impact still lives on today through the huge popularity of the Mona Lisa.Â
So, as we continue to learn more about the latest heist at the Louvre, don’t lose hope! Who knows? Maybe the jewels are simply sitting in someone’s apartment right in Paris.Â