Cold Open

It’s September 1911 in Paris, France.

The famous modernist artist, Pablo Picasso, walks handcuffed into court, here to answer for a recent art theft.

As he approaches the questioning box, he looks over to see Guillaume Apollinaire, a playwright, poet, and member of Pablo’s Parisian entourage. Whispers ripple through the gallery and, quickly, Pablo averts his eyes from Guillaume. Any sign that he recognizes his friend could spell trouble for Pablo.

In recent weeks, the city has been rocked by scandal. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been stolen from the Louvre museum, and Guillaume and Pablo have been accused of being connected to the theft. The pair have been outed as suspects by Guillaume’s former secretary, who claims to have stolen artifacts from the Louvre and sold them to Guillaume and Pablo in the past. The press has since reported the three of them as the prime suspects in the theft of the Mona Lisa. Though the artists are actually innocent, Pablo and Guillaume both face the prospect of potential deportation away from their beloved, adopted homes in Paris.

As the judge calls for order, Pablo’s questioning begins. It’s not long before the pressure gets to the artist. Shaking with nerves, Pablo’s testimony becomes contradictory and nonsensical, conflicting with both Guillaume’s claims and statements that he himself made just moments earlier. Within minutes, he grows so desperate to distance himself from the theft of the Mona Lisa that he claims to not even know Guillaume. And as Pablo makes this declaration, he sees his friend’s expression morph into one of surprise and hurt, and Pablo tries to hide the shame that overtakes him.

In the end, his lie does little to pardon himself anyway. Everyone in the courtroom, including the judge, is aware that Pablo and Guillaume run in the same circle. And as the room’s chatter builds once more, the judge again calls for order.

But the gallery only grows louder as Pablo, overwhelmed by the attention and the prospect of deportation, begins to weep uncontrollably. As the artist breaks down, Guillaume also begins to crack under the pressure, and before long, he admits to a laundry list of allegations – to buying stolen art, to attempting to hide the evidence, and to the employment of his secretary in schemes.

But through their tears and hysterics, there is one thing the pair of artists refuse to admit to: the theft of the Mona Lisa.

Pablo and Guillaume’s bumbling displays in court will work in their favor. The judge will throw out the case, determining the hysterical, weeping men to be incapable of pulling off such a heist. And as the artists walk free, the search for the Mona Lisa’s true thief will continue with a new vigor.

The involvement of two of Paris’s most well-known cultural figures will bring a new noteworthiness to the case. While the Mona Lisa is already well-respected by the art world, the painting will gain a new popularity among the masses by being stolen. The immense celebrity of Pablo Picasso and his dramatic court appearance will bring scores of curious spectators to the Louvre, eager to see the spot where the Mona Lisa once hung.

And as people flock to see the empty wall, the painting’s reputation will only grow, turning it into one of the most famous works of art. But despite many inquiries into its whereabouts, it will be two more years before Da Vinci’s masterpiece is finally uncovered, bringing an end to the mystery that began when a poor handyman tore the Mona Lisa from the Louvre’s walls on August 21st, 1911.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is August 21st, 1911: The Mona Lisa is Stolen.

Act One: Losing Lisa

It’s August 21st, 1911, outside the Louvre on the banks of the Seine River in central Paris.

Around 7 AM, Vincenzo Peruggia approaches the workers’ door of the museum. But Vincenzio isn’t here to clock in.

Once upon a time, he did work at the gallery. After moving from Italy in his 20s, Vincenzo took a job as a handyman at the Louvre. He even assisted in installing a protective glass case around the Mona Lisa amid growing fears of vandalism. But that was several years ago. Since then, his relationship with the Louvre’s other employees has soured and he’s quit working at the museum.

His departure was in part due to his experience of discrimination. As part of a wave of Italian immigrants into France around the turn of the century, Vincenzo often faced xenophobia, enduring ridicule and scorn for his background and nationality. And as a man with an impassioned love for his homeland, this derision has left Vincenzo feeling angry, and ready with a plan for revenge.

Today, he’s going to steal the Mona Lisa. Like so many of the other works hanging in the Louvre, the painting is an Italian creation. Vincenzo believes that it was wrongfully taken by Napoleon and that it should be hanging in a museum in Italy. Now, he’s prepared to help return it to its home country. And in ‘reclaiming’ the painting, he hopes to not only get back at those who have insulted him, but more importantly, to restore stolen pride to his homeland.

Dressed in the white smock of the Louvre’s staff, Vincenzo enters the museum without issue and then scurries into a storage closet which has a view of the room containing the Mona Lisa. It’s now 7:20 AM, and Vincenzo knows that a guard will be patrolling around the room to check everything is in order. But once he leaves, the room will be empty. And all Vincenzo has to do is wait for the right moment.

He peers around the closet door, watching intently as the guard wanders around the room, before eventually exiting. Quickly, Vincenzo steps out from the closet, looks around once more to check that nobody is around, and then carefully tip-toes inside the room.

Placed on the back wall is the Mona Lisa. Like most other items in the Louvre, it has little protection aside from four metal pegs securing it to the wall, and the glass case that Vincenzo himself helped install.

Slowly and silently, Vincenzo unhinges the painting from the wall and places it underneath his smock. He looks around, checking all is clear, before making his way to a service staircase. There, he uncovers the painting and frantically takes off its frame and glass case. Then, he heads for the same door he used to enter the museum.

But, just when it seems his plan is going flawlessly, he finds the exit to be locked. It’s then that Vincenzo realizes he’s made a mistake. Today is a Monday, a day the Louvre is not open; so, once all its workers are inside, the museum’s doors are locked and shut to the public.

But fortunately, Vincenzo can get himself out of this predicament, having brought a screwdriver with him. Within moments, he’s attacking the door knob’s screws. But just as he takes the handle off, he hears footsteps approaching.

Vincenzo’s heart leaps into his mouth. He turns around to see a plumber staring back at him. With a screwdriver in hand and the door knob on the floor, there’s no mistaking that he's been caught red-handed.

But, just as Vincenzo is ready to give himself up, the unexpected happens. The plumber, rather than asking him where he’s going with a painting, simply offers to help him with the door. Vincenzo doesn’t stop to question the worker’s hospitality. In disbelief, he thanks the plumber, then dashes off into the streets of Paris, with the Mona Lisa wrapped up in his white smock.

The painting’s disappearance will only be discovered twenty-four hours later when an artist comes to sketch the Mona Lisa and finds an empty wall in its place. As the mystery of the painting’s disappearance spreads through the press, captivating readers around the world, the Louvre will see more visitors than ever. Vincenzo’s theft will catapult Da Vinci’s masterpiece into unprecedented international stardom while sending the French police on a two-year-long hunt for the painting’s thief.

During this period, Vincenzo will store the Mona Lisa in the kitchen of his tiny, one-bedroom Parisian apartment, while the rest of the world wonders where the priceless piece of art could possibly be. But, it will be his desire to finally return the Mona Lisa to the land of its creator that will prove to be Vincenzo’s undoing and will bring the painting back to the Louvre.

Act Two: Locating Lisa

It’s December 1913 in Florence, Italy.

Vincenzo Peruggia makes his way down the city’s narrow streets, bound for an important meeting that could determine the future of the Mona Lisa.

Over the last two years, the trail to locate the painting has gone cold. Many have been accused as its thief, including Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, and countless conspiracy theories have abounded regarding the location of the now world-famous artwork. But none have proved true, and Da Vinci’s masterpiece is yet to be found.

Throughout the police’s hunt, Vincenzo has benefitted from his lowly status. During their investigation, an officer did visit Vincenzo for questioning, but he failed to find the painting inside his apartment and neglected to seriously consider the average handyman as a suspect.

Now, despite feeling as though he could keep the painting forever, Vincenzo knows it’s time to return the Mona Lisa to its rightful home, and hopefully, make a buck while he’s at it. Though he’s fallen in love with the painting and hates to lose it, years of living in a small apartment in a poor neighborhood has forced his hand. Vincenzo knows that the painting could be his way out of poverty, allowing him a better life and even granting him respect from those who ridiculed him.

Using the pseudonym ‘Leonardo,’ Vincenzo has been in correspondence with Alfredo Geri, a Florence-based antiques dealer. In their letters, Vincenzo has claimed to have the Mona Lisa in his possession and requested help in getting the painting back to Italy. Alfredo, though skeptical and initially dismissive, was interested enough to test the veracity of these claims. So, after some back and forth, Vincenzo has made the trip to Florence at Alfredo’s behest.

Now, Vincenzo knocks on Alfredo’s shop door, which is swiftly opened by the antiques dealer. As he enters, Vincenzo can sense Alfredo’s befuddlement. At just 5 foot 3, Vincenzo is hardly the criminal mastermind that Alfredo had been expecting. But the Italian handyman ignores his peer’s consternation and quickly takes control of their meeting.

Vincenzo lays out the terms of their deal. In return for the Mona Lisa, he wants 500,000 Italian lira, the equivalent of around $100,000 US dollars today. Alfredo accepts, on the condition that he can see the painting and confirm it’s the real thing. He also gets Giovanni Poggi, the interested director of a nearby gallery, involved in the deal.

Together, the three men head to Vincenzo’s hotel where the Mona Lisa is left unattended. Vincenzo drags Giovanni and Alfredo up three flights of stairs and invites them into his small room, where he reaches under the bed and pulls out a suitcase.

Slowly, he opens it up, spending a few moments rummaging around, tossing clothes and shoes onto the floor, before finally, extracting Da Vinci’s masterpiece.

Giovanni and Alfredo look at each other with a sense of disbelief. The painting is the right size, definitely, the work of the master, and everything else seems to check out. So, they take the Mona Lisa from Vincenzo to Giovanni’s gallery for final confirmation.

While the painting gets authenticated, Vincenzo decides to walk around Florence, taking in its many historical sites. Then he returns to his hotel room to wait. Meanwhile, at the gallery, Giovanni determines the painting is the authentic Mona Lisa. He can tell from the pattern of cracks, that it is no forgery. And immediately, he and Alfredo inform the police.

When the unknowing handyman receives a knock on his door, he doesn’t hesitate to open it, thinking that perhaps Alfredo and Giovanni have arrived with his money.

But as Vincenzo gleefully swings open his hotel room door, it’s not Giovanni or Alfredo in front of him, but a band of police officers ready to take him away. He sinks to his knees and begs them not to arrest him. But it does no use.

With the world watching, Vincenzo will soon be sent to trial for his crime. As his identity becomes known, many will want to know how and why a man from a lowly background was able to pull off a heist of such magnitude. But the world will have to wait six months before Vincenzo will reveal the truth behind one of the greatest art thefts of the twentieth century.

Act Three: Legacy Lisa

It’s June 4th, 1914 in Florence, Italy.

Inside a courtroom, Vincenzo Peruggia stands trial for the theft of the Mona Lisa.

The public and press have long waited for this day, eager to finally know the truth about how and why Vincenzo stole Da Vinci’s great work.

As the trial begins, Vincenzo shows no remorse. He recounts the ridicule he received while living in Paris, describing how the reaction to his Italian background led him to plot for revenge. He explains that he knew Napoleon took stolen art to France, and he realized stealing from the Louvre could be his way of getting back at the French people - by returning at least one piece of art to its home.

The Mona Lisa turned out to be an oddly easy target. Prior to the theft, it didn’t have the popularity it has now, so Vincenzo was confident its disappearance wouldn’t raise enough immediate alarm to prevent his escape. Plus, he had helped build the glass case that surrounds it, so he knew he could remove it with ease.

In response to all of this, the judge explains to Vincenzo that the Mona Lisa was not stolen; in fact, French King François I had bought the painting from Da Vinci for one of his palaces. At this, Vincenzo’s heart sinks. In a single moment, his defense, and the last two years of his life, seem to fall apart right in front of him.

But, as Vincenzo’s attorney gives his final argument, there is still one last surprise left in store. Despite the misunderstanding behind his theft, Vincenzo, an Italian native in front of an all-Italian jury, seems to have indeed awoken a sense of patriotism. Though Napoleon did not take the Mona Lisa, it’s known that Napoleon’s armies did steal numerous other artworks from Italy. And the trial’s sympathetic spectators agree with Vincenzo’s lawyer when he says that the handyman did no true harm. In their end, the Mona Lisa was recovered and now it’s more famous than ever. In their eyes, all Vincenzo did was take it on a valuable pilgrimage to the land of its maker.

As his lawyer makes his final remarks, Vincenzo receives a round of applause from those watching in the stands. When he does receive his sentence, it’s short, at just 1 year and 15 days in jail. But Vincenzo will only serve seven months. As he enters jail, World War I will erupt, and upon his early release, Vincenzo will join the Italian army.

In the end, the theft of the Mona Lisa and its return to the Louvre will be seen as a positive for the painting. Vincenzo’s crime brought a heightened popularity to the Mona Lisa that will persist into the present day. Every year, millions of people continue to visit the Louvre. And around 80% of them are believed to come just to see the Mona Lisa – a staggering figure for a single painting that was little-known until Vincenzo Peruggia stole it from the Louvre on August 21st, 1913.

Outro

Next on History Daily. August 22nd, 1962. An officer in the French Air Force leads an assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Luke Lonergan.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.