The morning Mona Lisa disappeared: Peruggia's Louvre entry

On a quiet morning, August 21, 1911, Italian glazier Vincenzo Peruggia, wearing a white work coat, entered the Louvre Museum in Paris through a staff door. It was just before seven o'clock on the museum's weekly closing day, and the famous museum lay deserted. As the summer heat settled over the French capital, Peruggia carried out what would become one of the 20th century's most daring and historic art heists: the theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The painting, world-famous today, was then a lesser-known treasure at the Louvre, its true value only revealed when it vanished from its place in the Salon Carré.

Glazier's knowledge: Peruggia's job led to the theft

Vincenzo Peruggia, born in Dumenza in northern Italy, had sought his fortune in Paris since 1908. He was employed by the A. Gobier company, which installed security glass in front of the Louvre's most valuable paintings, including the Mona Lisa. This gave him intimate knowledge of the Louvre Museum's security procedures and weaknesses, as well as how to remove paintings from their frames.

The official investigation into the theft showed that Peruggia used a staff staircase to remove the painting. He himself claimed to have wrapped it in his work coat and left the museum unnoticed. The narrow staircase, which still exists in the museum, later became the scene of a crucial discovery: the empty frame and protective glass were found hidden behind sketches. Peruggia's modest height of 160 cm (approx. 5'3") has led to speculation about how he could have concealed a 53x77 cm (approx. 21x30 inches) painting. However, during the subsequent trial in Florence in 1914, he explained that he had folded his coat around the painting and carried it under his arm.

26-hour head start: Discovery and police mistake

The most astonishing aspect of this daring theft is not just its execution, but that a full 26 hours passed before anyone noticed the Mona Lisa was missing. The theft of the Mona Lisa was only discovered when Parisian copyist Louis Béroud arrived at the Louvre on August 22 to paint a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. He found only four empty iron hooks and a bewildered guard who assumed the painting had been temporarily removed for photography.

After hours of waiting, Béroud insisted on a closer inspection, which triggered chaos. The Louvre Museum closed for an entire week while police searched every corner of the vast museum. Ironically, Vincenzo Peruggia himself was questioned by police during this intensive investigation but escaped suspicion. An administrative error in recording his fingerprints – the police had only noted his right-hand prints, while it was his left-hand print he had left on the frame – allowed him to remain undetected.

Mona Lisa's stardom: Stolen painting to global icon

While the police investigation in France floundered, the Mona Lisa suddenly became a global celebrity. Newspaper headlines worldwide proclaimed "the perfect crime," and thousands of curious onlookers flocked to the Louvre to gaze at the empty wall where the famous painting had hung. Over 50,000 visitors came in the first week alone – double the annual attendance before the theft. Souvenir shops profited handsomely from postcards and chocolate boxes featuring the Mona Lisa's portrait, and she became a cultural icon and a fixture of contemporary pop culture.

Meanwhile, Vincenzo Peruggia hid the painting in his modest apartment at 5 Rue de l'Hôpital-Saint-Louis in Paris. Letters to his father in Italy revealed a dream of "making a fortune all at once" by selling the stolen artwork. Two years passed, during which French police pursued numerous false leads, even leading to the brief arrest of poet Guillaume Apollinaire and painter Pablo Picasso, who were mistakenly suspected of leading a gang of art thieves.

Florence reveal: Peruggia's attempt to sell the painting

In December 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia finally made contact with the outside world. With the Mona Lisa hidden in a false-bottomed suitcase, he traveled to Florence, Italy, where he approached art dealer Alfredo Geri. Under the pseudonym "Leonard," Peruggia wrote: "I have Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. It belongs to Italy, and I wish to return it to my homeland." This attempt to portray himself as a patriotic hero can be seen as an element of deception, especially in light of his earlier statements about profit.

The meeting at the Hotel Tripoli-Italia on December 10, however, proved to be an anticlimax for Peruggia. When Alfredo Geri and Giovanni Poggi, the director of the Uffizi Gallery, opened the suitcase, the Mona Lisa was there – intact, but with a small tear in the canvas caused by Peruggia's careless handling. "I expect half a million lire and a guarantee that it will never return to France," Vincenzo Peruggia proclaimed, but he was instead promptly arrested.

Florence trial: Patriot or fraud? Peruggia's verdict

During the subsequent trial in Florence in June 1914, Vincenzo Peruggia appeared as an almost tragicomic figure. He stubbornly maintained that his motive for the theft was pure patriotism: "Napoleon stole it from Italy! I wanted to give the Mona Lisa back to the Italian people." However, the prosecution pointed to his earlier letter about "making a fortune" and a previous conviction for armed robbery, which cast doubt on his purported noble intentions and indicated his guilt.

The sentence was one year and 15 days' imprisonment, but Peruggia was released after only seven months for good behavior. Meanwhile, the Mona Lisa embarked on a triumphant tour of Italy, where over 60,000 people in Rome and Milan viewed the painting before it was returned to the Louvre Museum in France under military escort on January 4, 1914. There, it was placed behind a reinforced glass frame – a direct consequence of the spectacular theft. Today, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece is protected by a 600 kg (approx. 1,323 lbs) bulletproof glass panel.

Legacy of the theft: Peruggia's fate and icon status

Although Vincenzo Peruggia died in 1925, the debate over his true motive for the historic art theft continues. Was he a naive Italian patriot, a cunning thief, or merely a clumsy opportunist? Letters and court documents from the Florence trial suggest a complex mix of motives: resentment towards France, where he had experienced discrimination as an immigrant, combined with a dream of quick riches.

Ironically, it was Vincenzo Peruggia's daring theft that catapulted the Mona Lisa from a valued artwork to a global icon – a status the Louvre Museum still benefits from, with over 15,000 visitors flocking to see the painting daily.

This spectacular art theft also exposed alarming security flaws at the world-famous museum. Before 1911, a painting could practically be stolen by anyone simply by lifting it off the wall. As a direct consequence of the Mona Lisa theft, modern alarm systems, stricter guard protocols, and the first surveillance cameras were introduced – a security legacy that still shapes museum security worldwide.

Vincenzo Peruggia himself faded into historical obscurity, but his act secured Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa an eternal place on the world map.

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