Sunday, the 20th August 1911 was being a too hot day in Paris.
Poupardin, the one in charge of guarding the Mona Lisa that day, took a nap.
Nothing was unusual. Louvre closes on Mondays, since it’s their off and
cleaning day. Poupardin goes back to work on Thursday, the 22nd. Louis Béraud
was copying Leonardo’s masterpiece, but when he returns to keep going on with
his work, he comes to see that the painting wasn’t there! When he asks
Poupardin he replies that they might have taken it to take pictures of it. That
was something common to do back then, every photographer could do so and there
was no record kept at all. And around then, the director had ordered a
photographic record of all the artworks in the museum. Béraud waited for some
hours, but La Gioconda wouldn’t come back. Nobody knew where she was, they look
for her everywhere, but she wouldn’t show up. They report the robbery to the
police, and they close the museum. It’s said to the visitors that it’s due to a
water leakage. Also the borders are closed and trains and cars are revised.
On
one of the museum’s service stairways its frame and the crystal that
protected it were found with a left thumb fingerprint on it. It was clear that
the robber was somebody who had been in the Museum several times before and knew
how to take the masterpiece away (since it’s weight could make it harder, 35
kgs). That’s why the whole staff was questioned, or most of it, since there was
no record of who worked in the Museum.
Poupardin confessed that he had fallen asleep that Sunday, but he had
seen 3 Italian workers with a brown package and a young German fan of La
Gioconda, who always offered flowers to it, but he assured that when they left,
the masterpiece was still there. Other witnessed claimed to have seen someone
running and carrying a packet across the Louvre’s gardens. They also said they
saw him throwing something shiny to the floor. The plumber, Sauve, tells how he
had helped that Monday one of the staff’s members to open the door that led to
that service stairway, but now that door’s knob had disappeared. It was later
found in the gardens by the police.
Finally, the news was spread through the media. The French Government
and the newspapers were offering great rewards to whom would recover the
painting. It soon turned into a national scandal, since it was a proof of the
lack of the security in the museum and skill among the police.[1]
 |
| Rafael, Baldassare Castiglione, 1514 |
On 29th October, the museum was reopened to public with the wall left
empty: there was huge expectation to see the absence of the masterpiece. After
searching the Mona Lisa unsuccessfully around whole Europe, all attempts of
finding it were given up around the year’s end. In the following year, the
painting didn’t appear in the Museum’s catalogue and Rafael’s Baldassare Castiglione would be hung in
its place.
What was the intention of the robbery? It was impossible to sell it.
In London, a stranger offers the Mona Lisa to the merchant Duveen, he
reacts making mockery of him and reluctant to take in part in such a matter.
The stranger travelled later to Lake of Como and offers it to the banker J.P.
Morgan.
The merchant Geri, from Milan, publishes in occassion of his 1913
Christmas Campaign an advertisement of his will to buy antiques for a good
price. Among several letters, he receives one from somebody named Leonardo
offering him La Gioconda, explaining he wanted it to return to Italy. Geri
reacts prudently because it could have been a copy. He contacts Poggi, director
of Uffizi,
and they both go to the hotel in which
‘Leonardo’ was acommodated. Suprisingly, they recognised it was the actual lost
Mona Lisa. They had agreed a price that would reach to 2 million dollars
nowadays. Immediately, they warn the police and the stranger was arrested and
later identified as Vicenzo Peruggia.
 |
| (Wikipedia) |
The news in France was received with skepticism. Peruggia had worked
for the Louvre Museum, he had built the frame for the masterpiece and the
fingerprint found matched with his. But he had never raised any suspicion
during the questionings, despite already having criminal record. He confessed
not having done it alone, but with the help of the Lancellotti brothers (who
were also arrested) and that their intention was to repair the damaged caused
by Napoleon’s robberies[2]
but after some research the offers to Duveen and Morgan were discovered, and so
was their former intention to sell the painting and that nobody said anything
for their fear.
In 1914 they were condemned for 1 year and 15 days. 1st World War had
already begun and nobody wanted to risk their international relations even
more, and this why the sentence was reduced to just 7 months. Since he had
already spent that time in jail, he was freed.
La Gioconda was exhibited around whole Italy before being given back
to France. Its 2 year disapparition was the earliest "art action" of contemporary
art: it made this portrait not only the masterpiece it was already itself, but
also a myth.
But the story doesn’t finish this. Peruggia was who carried out the
crime, but who planned it? Who was behind the robbery? Find it out in our next
week’s post.
Sources:Scott, R.A. El robo de
la sonrisa. Madrid, Turner, 2010
Pulitzer, H. Where is
the Mona Lisa? Londres, Pulitzer
Press, 1967
[1] Meanwhile,
the police was suspecting about Apollinaire and Picasso. We’ll talk about this
in the future, as part of the story of the Les demoiselles d'Avignon.
[2] Napoleon
carried out a great number of plunderings of artworks, but the Mona Lisa had
always been in France, where Leonardo took it when he moved there.
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