More than a century ago, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was just another Renaissance painting hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Today, it stands as the world's most recognizable artwork, drawing up to 30,000 visitors daily who wait in long lines for a brief glimpse of the masterpiece. The transformation from relative obscurity to global fame can be traced back to a single event that occurred on August 21, 1911 – the day the painting was stolen.
Before the theft, the Mona Lisa was far from being a household name. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1507, the work didn't achieve masterpiece status until the 1860s, more than three centuries after its creation. Even then, it remained largely unknown to the general public. As historian James Zug explained to All Things Considered host Guy Raz, "The 'Mona Lisa' wasn't even the most famous painting in its gallery, let alone in the Louvre."
The audacious heist was carried out by three Italian handymen who had been working at the museum. Their plan was surprisingly simple yet effective. The trio hid in an art supply closet after the museum's closing time, then carefully removed the painting, frame, and glass from the wall. They slipped the canvas into a blanket and made their escape on an early-morning express train departing Paris. Remarkably, it took more than a full day before anyone noticed the empty space on the wall where the famous portrait had hung.
The theft sparked a two-year international manhunt that captivated audiences worldwide and inadvertently launched the Mona Lisa to unprecedented fame. The story made front-page news in major publications, including The New York Times, spreading images of da Vinci's work to corners of the globe where it had never been seen before. The publicity reached far more people than would have ever sought out the painting under normal circumstances.
In an ironic twist, the empty space where the stolen painting once hung became a tourist attraction in itself. Curious visitors formed long lines outside the Louvre just to see the vacant spot on the wall. Among those who reportedly came to witness the absence was the famous writer Franz Kafka. The missing painting had become more famous than it ever was while hanging in the museum.
Meanwhile, the main perpetrator, Vincenzo Peruggia, found himself in an impossible situation. The theft had backfired spectacularly – the painting had become too famous and recognizable to sell on the black market. The extensive media coverage and worldwide attention made it nearly impossible for him to find a buyer without drawing suspicion. During the intensive investigation that followed, French police even questioned renowned artist Pablo Picasso as a potential suspect.
The case finally came to a close in 1913 when Peruggia was caught attempting to sell the stolen masterpiece to an art dealer in Florence, Italy. When arrested, he claimed his motivation was patriotic – he insisted he was trying to return the painting to Italy, believing it had been stolen by Napoleon during his campaigns. Despite his claimed noble intentions, Peruggia received an eight-month prison sentence for the theft.
The incident's impact on art history cannot be overstated. Noah Charney, a professor of art history, told CNN, "If a different one of Leonardo's works had been stolen, then that would have been the most famous work in the world – not the Mona Lisa." This observation highlights how circumstance and narrative can elevate certain artworks above others of equal or even superior artistic merit.
The Mona Lisa's story mirrors that of many valuable collectibles across different categories. Just as the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card owes much of its million-dollar value to its legendary rarity and the dramatic tales of individual copies passing through the hands of criminals, nuns, and world-famous athletes, the Mona Lisa's fame stems as much from its story as from da Vinci's artistic genius. Similarly, the Inverted Jenny stamp, which has sold for $2 million, derives its value entirely from the printing error that led to its removal from production.
Today, more than 110 years after the theft, the Mona Lisa continues to benefit from that fateful day in 1911. The painting's fame extends far beyond art circles, making it a cultural icon recognized by people who may never set foot in a museum. Visitors to the Louvre aren't just coming to see a canvas on a wall – they're experiencing a piece of history, a legend that was born not in da Vinci's studio, but in the dramatic circumstances of its disappearance and recovery. The theft gave the Mona Lisa something that artistic merit alone couldn't provide: a story compelling enough to survive and thrive across centuries.
