Re -Train Your Brain To Happiness: Vincenzo Peruggia: The Man Who Stole The Mona Lisa And Made Her more Famous Than Ever

Vincenzo Peruggia saw himself as an Italian patriot who committed a daring theft mainly because his knowledge of history was somewhat lacking.

He was convinced that Napoleon had stolen the Mona Lisa from Florence and he was determined to take it back to where he thought it belonged.

This was incorrect. It had been legitimately bought by the French King François I.
Leonardo Da Vinci had been to France.

According to Wiki - which I use with care:

"The Mona Lisa (Monna Lisa or La Gioconda in Italian; La Joconde in French) is a half-length portrait of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".

The painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, although Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.

The ambiguity of the subject's expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modeling of forms and the atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.

[...]

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506", the art historian Martin Kemp says there is some difficulty in confirming the actual dates with certainty. According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished". Leonardo, later in his life, is said to have regretted "never having completed a single work".

In 1516 Leonardo was invited by King François I to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. It is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work after he moved to France. Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that da Vinci probably continued refining the work until 1516 or 1517.

On his death the painting was inherited, among other works, by his pupil and assistant Salaì. The king bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Palace of Fontainebleau, where it remained until Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre, but spent a brief period in the bedroom of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.During World War II, the painting was again removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d'Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord, then finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban.

[....]"

There is usually a huge problem associated which such heists: now what do I do with it?

Vincenzo Peruggia stored the painting in his Paris apartment for over 2 years! He finally decided to contact an art dealer and his associate from the Ufizzi Gallery.

In that time the Mona Lisa became the talk of the day all over the world.

This went on for ages. If anyone hadn't heard of this painting at the time they certainly knew about it now.

La Gioconda got as much press coverage, probably even more, than any of today's celebrities or politicians.

It is one of the reasons it it now the world's best known painting.

Many speculated as to who could have committed this crime. No one came close.

After all that time he finally decided to contact an Italian art dealer and his associate from the Ufizzi Gallery.

Ultimately this lead to his capture.

More from Think Big - an excerpt with many thanks.

"He made more money as a handyman than as an artist, but Vincenzo Peruggia’s personally responsible for making the Mona Lisa what it is today. Leonardo da Vinci painted Lisa del Giocondo in the early 16^th century, but Peruggia made her famous worldwide by walking out of the Louvre with the painting wrapped in his smock on August 21, 1911, one hundred years ago (today). With that daring daylight robbery, the Mona Lisa began her ascent into the stratosphere of cultural fame, while Peruggia sank further and further into the hazy mists of vague infamy.

How and why did Peruggia do it? More importantly, what would have happened if he hadn’t?

Peruggia came to Paris in search of a life in art, even if it was only as a part-time worker in the Louvre. Like many other Italians, Peruggia sought greater opportunities in the City of Lights only to find himself disparaged by the locals as “sale macaroni,” French for “dirty macaroni.”

Wounded by prejudice and longing for home, Peruggia, as he later claimed, stole back what he mistakenly thought Napoleon had stolen from Italy a century before. In reality, Leonardo sold the painting to Francis I after moving to France to become court painter. But why did Vincenzo really do it?

In The Missing Piece: Vincenzo Peruggia and the Unthinkable Theft of the Mona Lisa, writer and director Joe Medeiros cinematically searches for the answer to that question. (You can see the film’s trailer above.)

Medeiros enlists the help of Peruggia’s descendants, including his daughter and grandchildren, to track down the truth—whether it be the often-invoked patriotism motive or a more nefarious profit motive.

One less-noble theory has Peruggia stealing the painting for a con man who planned to sell six copies to wealthy investors while the real work was missing.
[....]

Sadly, when Medeiros’ research unearths Peruggia’s letters that the police had taken as evidence, those letters reveal that Peruggia stole the Mona for the usual reasons—money and fame.

Noah Charney, international authority on art crime as founder and president of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), also takes on the art crime of the centuries in his new book, The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World's Most Famous Painting.

In addition to analyzing the how and why of the theft, Charney goes into the pre- and post-Peruggia lives of La Gioconda. Even before the heist, da Vinci’s work drew praise ranging from contemporary Giorgio Vasari, who gave the painting it’s name, which means approximately “Lady Lisa,” to 19^th century essayist Walter Pater’s prose poem to the “Lady of the Rocks.”

“Mysterious, beautiful, iconic, and the work of a true universal genius, the Mona Lisa was once again celebrated, already among the most famous paintings in the world,” Charney writes of the power of Pater’s paean.“And it hadn’t even been stolen yet.”

Before Peruggia, the Mona Lisa stood among the greatest paintings in the world. After his act, followed by the search and recovery two years later, Mona left the rest far, far behind.

Charney tells the tale with his trademark breathless flair and eye for fascinating detail, in this case episodes such as Picasso’s being questioned about the theft and Mona’s “missing years” during World War II when the Nazis may have taken her as part of their rape of Europa’s art treasures.

Peruggia held onto the painting for nearly two years before contacting art experts in Italy about selling her. During those two years, Mona-mania gripped Europe, ginning up the painting’s cultural cache.

Peruggia served a short jail sentence while Mona toured Italy before triumphantly returning to France. While fighting for Italy in World War I, Vincenzo began answering to Pietro. After the war, Pietro Peruggia married, moved back to France, opened his own paint store, and lived in obscurity with his family until his death in 1925.

When a different Vincenzo Peruggia died in 1947, some obituaries mistook him for the real thief. Peruggia died believing that he’d live forever as the man who stole the Mona Lisa. That he never received that reward may have been the worst penalty for his crime.

When I asked Noah what museums today should take away from the Peruggia case, he replied, “The biggest lesson to learn would be that wishful thinking, hubris, and lethargy lead to security problems.

The Louvre had been robbed on multiple occasions in the decades prior to 1911 and the museum had done nothing to ramp up security until it was too late.”

Just earlier this month, a thief took a Rembrandt drawing literally from under a curator’s nose, proving that security hasn’t come too far in a century.

What art lovers should take away is just how constructed the Mona Lisa’s fame is, and what the price of that fame is.

“Despite its renown, the Mona Lisa is what has been called an “invisible” icon—something so famous that people have ceased to really look at it or know anything about it beyond its title and creator,” Charney believes.

“Next time you go to Paris, by all means visit the Mona Lisa. Take a picture, if you like. But when you stand before it, take a moment to really look. Share the space, consider its history, the miracle of its survival, and think about why it is famous. The reward will be far greater for the time spent in contemplation and admiration.”

Mona’s everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time, at least in any true sense. What Peruggia really stole from the world may be the chance at that authentic, unfiltered look at da Vinci’s portrait. A century later, the time has come to take it back.

[Many thanks to Noah Charney for answering my questions and providing me with a review copy of The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World's Most Famous Painting.]"
By Bob Duggan

Knowing all that I still feel the painting is substantially well-known in it's own right simply because Leonardo Da Vinci is one of history's most amazing people.

He is a true Renaissance man who dabbled in so much - art, anatomy, invention, mathematics and much more - so to me it follows that whatever he did was incredible and is still being studied and admired!

See also:
Leonardo da Vinci: The Leicester Codex.
Great Minds: Leonardo da Vinci
Napoleon Met His Waterloo Because He Used The Wrong Map!
London Exhibition Explores Truth Of Leonardo da Vinci’s Genius