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# A Century Later, Mona Lisa Is Still Here
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-century-later-mona-lisa-is-still-here/
- Published: 2011-08-11T19:55:16.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:40:52.000Z
- Description: This month marks the 100th anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, and the Financial Times observes the occasion with a fascinating feature article that tells the tale of the theft of what was (then as now) the world's most famous work of art
- Author: John d'Addario
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Art Crime, Art History, Louvre, Mona Lisa, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/08/monalisa.jpg "monalisa")

In her autobiography [*D.V.*](http://books.google.com/books/about/D%5FV.html?id=2E65XY0CBeUC&ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* legendary fashion doyenne Diana Vreeland recounts the [(probably apocryphal) story](http://books.google.com/books?id=2E65XY0CBeUC&pg=PP27&lpg=PP27&dq=vreeland+mona+lisa&source=bl&ots=syJvol-91X&sig=ucNdO-62b3zmSztj6Kiou0M04AA&hl=en&ei=riVDTqs4h4iyAr2VkOsJ&sa=X&oi=book%5Fresult&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false) of how she and her sister and their governess were the last to see the Mona Lisa before it was unexpectedly removed from view at the Louvre: the next morning, it was stolen by a man posing as a member of the museum’s maintenance staff in what is still called “the art heist of the century” (though the [still-unsolved 1990 thefts](http://www.gardnermuseum.org/resources/theft?ref=hyperallergic.com) at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have a pretty good claim at that title as well).

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the crime, and the *Financial Times* observes the occasion with a [fascinating feature article](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/069d8662-be37-11e0-bee9-00144feabdc0.html?ref=hyperallergic.com#axzz1Ufu9kLFB) that tells the tale of the theft of what was (then as now) the world’s most famous work of art and the two-year investigation which followed, which included none other than poet [Guillaume Apollinaire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume%5FApollinaire?ref=hyperallergic.com) and some dude named Picasso as suspects.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/08/peruggia.jpg)

Vincenzo Peruggia’s police record (via ft.com)

The man who was eventually caught and tried for the theft was a “mentally deficient” Italian house painter-cum-glazier named Vincent Peruggia. When questioned why he had decided to walk off with the world’s most famous painting, Peruggia’s explanation was as concise as it was touching: “I fell in love with her.” Surely anyone who has walked through the Met and fallen hard for a particular [Vermeer](http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1979.396.1?ref=hyperallergic.com) or [Bronzino](http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/29.100.16?ref=hyperallergic.com) could relate — though since anyone nowadays with a copy of MS Paint, a couple of hours, and a hell of a lot of nerve can [make their very own](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl%5FZ7ZU&ref=hyperallergic.com) museum-worthy copy of Ms. Mona themselves, why risk it?