The Mona Lisa, a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, was stolen from the Musée du Louvre in Paris on this day in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian museum worker and artist, in what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. It was recovered 2 years later in Italy
Peruggia attributed his actions to Italian patriotism—a belief it should belong to Italy. The theft and subsequent recovery in 1914 generated unprecedented publicity for an art theft, and led to the publication of many cultural depictions such as the 1915 opera Mona Lisa, two early 1930s films (The Theft of the Mona Lisa and Arsène Lupin) and the song’”Mona Lisa’ recorded by Nat King Cole—one of the most successful songs of the 1950s. It also gained global fame and popularity for the painting, which is now described as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, [and] the most parodied work of art in the world”.
Painted in oil on a white poplar panel, the Mona Lisa has been traditionally considered to depict the Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo, though Leonardo never gave the painting to the Giocondo family.
It was believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; though, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. King Francis I of France acquired the Mona Lisa after Leonardo’s death in 1519, and it is now the property of the French Republic. It has normally been on display at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.
The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest-known painting insurance valuation in history at US$100 million in 1962, equivalent to $1 billion as of 2023.
-Wikipedia
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