On Monday, August 21, 1911, the world’s most famous work of art – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa – was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris. That morning, many museum employees noticed that the painting was not hanging in its usual place.It was such an inconceivable crime, that the Mona Lisa wasn’t even noticed missing until the following day. But, they assumed the painting was taken off the wall by the official museum photographer who was shooting pictures of it up in his studio.
By Tuesday morning, when the painting hadn’t been returned and it was not in the photographer’s studio, museum officials were notified. The painting was gone!
The entire museum was searched from top to bottom.Many people were questioned about the theft – from museum employees to people who worked or lived nearby.This was a long and difficult investigation. And then, finally, 27 months later the thruth came out:
What the Louvre officials didn’t know was that Vincenzo Perugia,on of the museum employers, held a deep resentment against France, believing that all of the museum’s Italian renaissance masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa, had been stolen from Italy’s museums and galleries during Napoleon’s invasion. When he was caught two years after stealing the great painting, Perugia claimed that he was only returning the painting to its rightful owner – Italy.

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