The Day That The MONA LISA was Stolen!

Pay attention that today I am going to tell you the story of the day that the Mona Lisa was stolen.

It was the year of 1911 when the painter Louis Beroud realized that a small painting by Leonardo Da Vinci was missing.

It should be noted that the Mona Lisa was not as famous as it is today, it was not a centerpiece like the Venus, the raft of the jellyfish or freedom.

Beroud knew her because she worked in the galleries but The Mona Lisa was one of the many almost unknown works that were in the Louvre.

Beroud warned the guards, but they did not do anything, they even told him not to worry, that they were surely photographing her or something.

Beroud did not stay quiet so he went to the museum director to ask him, he entered his office and it was empty.

He was on vacation so he resorted to one last option, the Egyptian wing curator who notified the police and discovered ...

That the painting had been stolen, it had even disappeared for two days, but since it was not famous, nobody had noticed it.

The Louvre was closed for a week, and investigations began, the press published some of the painting every day.

She became famous only because it was stolen, and her image appeared in newsreels, boxes of chocolates, pamphlets, etc ...

The world discovered that painting existed, and to continue selling newspapers, the press began to make stories, that if Leonardo ...

He was in love with the "Joconde", that if it was his self-portrait, that if he hid something in the smile, everything to sell more newspapers.

The work of the press made the painting acquire such fame that people lined up to see the empty space where it was.

Meanwhile, the police were still investigating and questioning thousands of suspects.

At the end the tracks took them to two people who ...

They had already been arrested for stealing and hiding works of art and then trying to sell them, it was the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and ...

Who do you think was the other accomplice?

His accomplice was a young painter who had hidden the stolen works in his workshop and then suggested getting rid of them, his name was ...

Pablo Picasso.

Due to this background the police interrogated them and investigated, Picasso cried during the interrogation and denied his friendship with Apollinaire.

In the end they let them go because they showed they were not involved in the theft of paint, so the police still did not have a solid clue.

They tried to put together the profile of the mastermind behind the theft, they wondered what their complicated plan of action was like.

And so 2 years and 111 days went by and the painting was already lost, the world resigned itself to never seeing it again.

And now we are going to the city of Florence, where one afternoon a man was looking to speak with Alfredo Geri, director of the gallery of trades.

He was an Argentine by the name of Eduardo Valfierno and once he was alone he offered to sell him a painting.

Guess what painting was ...

The Mona Lisa !

Alfredo warns the police and Eduardo Valfierno quickly confesses that he convinced a man named Vincenzo Peruggia to steal her.

They go to the department of Peruggia and they arrest him and under a table on the floor they find the Mona Lisa, but the strange thing was that ...

There were several exact copies of the painting.

Taking advantage of the fame of the work, they confessed that they had already sold several copies as true.

The police wanted to know what Peruggia's master plan was so he told them ...

That he had worked at the museum, so he put on a white coat like the workers, picked up the painting and hid it and left.

And that's it.

Valfierno ends up in prison but even though the police knew that Peruggia was not a criminal genius or an art connoisseur, it's more ...

It was not even his plan, it was Valfierno and Chaudron who were known swindlers who chose the painting only because of its size.

But still the carpenter of Italian origin, became the face of the theft when he said he did to return the painting to Italy.

Which was a lie but his nationalist discourse made people feel sympathy and after a symbolic sentence was released.

But what about the Mona Lisa?

Because Italy seemed not to want to return it so they sent her touring the country.

Here is a curious image of the Mona Lisa being exhibited in Florence.

The French remind them that King Francisco I bought it and after several months they return it although of the exact copies nothing was known.

And once in the Louvre people started traveling from all corners of the world to see the painting that was talked about so long.

Some doubted that it was the original and there were already many legends of the painting, but it did not matter, he had returned home.

The world and Europe did not know what awaited them, two world wars were coming, even Paris would be occupied by the Germans.

So the one who found the Mona Lisa was a story with a happy ending, then 3 decades of wars and pain would come.

And this was the Story of the day the Mona Lisa was stolen and the last happy ending in 30 years.