Sophie Wittenbeck Mona Lisa Essay

Sophie Wittenbeck Mona Lisa Essay

The theft of the “Mona Lisa” radically changed people’s awareness and views of the painting. People were very interested in this event because how it happened is unknown. The “Mona Lisa” was painted by Leonardo da Vinci and was displayed at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. The theft of the “Mona Lisa” likely took place in the morning, but the painting was gone for an entire day before anyone realized it had been stolen. When the museum opened and the wall where da Vinci’s masterpiece had hung was bare, no one thought anything of the at first because the museum had been photographing many of the pieces of art in its massive collection. For some time, important paintings had been routinely disappearing from their usual places and taken to the roof to be photographed in the bright sunlight. It wasn’t until the next day that the theft was discovered. An art student planned to paint in the gallery that day, using the “Mona Lisa” in his picture. He asked the guards when it would return and the guards went to check with the photography staff. They were in great shock when they all realized the painting was nowhere to be found. After the discovery of this, the museum immediately locked its doors and began to search. For nine days, French police swarmed the place, interrogated staff, and searched for clues. No one could figure out what happened and thought the theft could have only been the work of a criminal mastermind.
When the museum announced the theft, it became an international media sensation. When the museum reopened, thousands of people poured into the gallery to see the empty wall. All the investigators, theories, and public furor led nowhere. It appeared that the “Mona Lisa” had disappeared forever.
Two years later, a man contacted an art dealer, Alfredo Geri, in Florence, Italy. The man told Geri he was in possession of the “Mona Lisa” and that he wanted to sell it. Geri was skeptical. He arranged a meeting and brought along the director of Uffizi Gallery to determine if the painting was real. It was. Geri contacted the police who promptly arrested the man. This man was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who had worked as a housepainter and carpenter in France for many years. He had a job to install glass cases in the Louvre. Peruggia claimed he had stolen the painting to return it to its home in Italy. He argued that the French general Napolean had wrongly taken the “Mona Lisa” from its homeland. This made him a folk hero in Italy, even though his story wasn’t true. Da Vinci himself had brought the painting to France, where King Francois 1 purchased it after his death. Peruggia was convicted with theft, but his popularity might have helped him get sentenced to just a few months in prison.
It was a great and interesting theft because no one knew how Peruggia did it. One version of the theft was that Peruggia simply walked in the Louvre, where he was still known by many of the guards. When the gallery was empty, he lifted the “Mona Lisa” from the wall, hid in a nearby staircase, took the painting from the frame, and then walked out with it under his workman’s smock. Another version of the theft that people believed was that Peruggia had accomplices who helped him. They were two Itailian brothers, Vincenzo and Michele Lancelutti. The three hid out in small storeroom in the Louvre that Saturday night. When the museum closed, they dismantled the case, removed the painting, and left when the museum reopened. The painting was missing for two years until Peruggia told Geri it was in his possession.
The French government was delighted to get its painting back. France let the “Mona Lisa” tour Italy before it returned to it permanent home at the Louvre. An estimated 100,000 people went to see it in its first two days back. Even a century later, as many as 8 million people a year come to see the “Mona Lisa.” The “Mona Lisa” became the most popular painting and cultural icon it is today all because of its absence.
People took such an interest in the event because no one knew exactly what had happened and the painting was missing for two years. Their interest was mainly in the crime than the actual painting. People were happy to see the painting once it was found. Before the painting was stolen, not as many people were interested in it. After it was stolen and became an international media sensation, people took interest in the theft because they wondered what had happened and who did it. It became a cultural icon when it was found. The “Mona Lisa’s” popularity skyrocketed.
The theft of the “Mona Lisa” radically changed people’s awareness of and views about the painting. It was a mystery for two years, and when the painting was found, the “Mona Lisa” came the most popular painting in the world, all because of its theft.