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The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is undoubtedly the most famous painting in the world. What is important, it still evokes very vivid emotions, and at the end of last month, it was even pelted with cake by one of the visitors. Why does the portrait from 1503 still cause so much controversy? We will answer this question in the following article.

The story of the theft of the Mona Lisa

The work of the Renaissance master was put on permanent display at the Louvre in 1797. It disappeared from the exhibition on 21 August 1911. It took as many as 28 hours for museum staff to notice the theft, probably because the paintings had previously been taken off the walls quite often too, for example, go into conservation. After the Louvre announced the news about the theft, newspapers all over the world made headlines about the missing masterpiece: "60 detectives seek stolen painting", "French public is outraged". - wrote the New York Times. The theft became something of a national scandal. Emotions were fuelled by photos of the empty wall without a painting published in the media. This is how a not very well-known painting from the Louvre became a worldwide hit.

After two years of investigation, it was discovered that an Italian employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Peruggia, was behind the act. He hid in the museum on Sunday 20 August 1911, knowing that it would be closed the next day. On 21 August he sneaked in and put on the white apron of the museum staff. At some point, he entered the empty room where the Mona Lisa was on display and moved the painting to an unused staircase. There he removed the frame and hid the painting under his apron. Peruggia carried the painting out the door as the guard who worked there left his post.

The Mona Lisa in pop culture

The theme of the theft of the famous painting was already discussed in post-culture in the 1930s. The Hungarian director Géza von Bolváry made a film in 1931 called The Theft of the Mona Lisa (German title: Der Raub der Mona Lisa).

The work was reproduced and featured in art in later years as well, with singer Nat "King" Cole celebrating it in a 1950 pop hit. Marcel Duchamp painted a postcard with the image of Gioconda with a moustache, and Salvador Dalí, known for his surrealist work, painted a self-portrait in the style of the Mona Lisa in 1954.

Added 2022-06-15 in by Alicja Graczyk

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