In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place.
If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that!
You see, I'm in
the Red Queen's Race...
Oh, Oh, ...Where Did She Go?
By Janet Evans
Friday, Aug 22 2008, 06:28 AM
Mona Lisa
(Italian: La Gioconda, French:La Joconde) |
Leonardo da Vinci,
c. 1503–1506 |
1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen The Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, was stolen today from the Louvre. No one noticed that the painting was gone until the following day; even then, guards just assumed the painting was being photographed.
"The famous painting hung in the place of honor in the Salon Carre, and not a vestige of a clue was left by the person or persons who took it to aid the detectives and police in trying to trace it.
A search of every nook and cranny of the Louvre, from roof to cellar, only brought to light the valuable frame in which the picture hung and the glass that covered it. These were intact on a back staircase," reported The Washington Post on August 23, 1911.
"Some persons there are who believe that a practical joke has been played, but, nevertheless, the government has set to work its entire force of detectives in an effort to recover the painting.
"NOTE: The painting was finally recovered over two years later. A Louvre employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, stole the painting by hiding in a broom closet until the museum closed and then simply walking out with it hidden underneath his coat. According to the Reno Evening Gazette, Peruggia stole the painting "as an act of patriotic vengeance for Napoleon's depredations in Italy."
Great Picture Stolen Today:
Mona Lisa, of Di Vinci Taken From the Louvre
Fort Wayne News - August 22, 1911.pdf
(actual newspaper article)
