Mona Lisa Stolen: Louvre Employee's Audacious Theft
Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who had helped install the Mona Lisa's protective glass case, simply lifted the painting off its four iron pegs, hid it under his smock, and walked out of the Louvre on August 21, 1911. The theft wasn't discovered for over 24 hours because the museum had only 150 guards for 400 rooms. Pablo Picasso was questioned as a suspect. Poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and jailed. Peruggia kept the painting in his apartment in Paris for two years before attempting to sell it to a Florentine art dealer, who alerted authorities. Peruggia claimed he was a patriot returning the painting to Italy. The theft made the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world; before 1911, it was just another Leonardo.
August 21, 1911
115 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on August 21
Eraclus became the 25th bishop of Liège in 959, taking charge of one of the most powerful ecclesiastical seats in the Lotharingian region — a position that comb…
Song Dynasty general Yue Fei won a decisive victory over Jin Dynasty forces under Wanyan Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng. Yue Fei's military brilliance made him…
Black African soldiers in the Fatimid army, joined by Egyptian emirs and commoners, revolted against Saladin on August 21, 1169. This uprising forced Saladin to…
Minamoto no Yoritomo seized the title of Sei-i Taishōgun, establishing the Kamakura shogunate and shifting Japan's political center from Kyoto to the military c…
Minamoto no Yoritomo's appointment as Seii Tai Shogun in 1192 created Japan's first military government — the Kamakura shogunate. Real power shifted from the im…
After months of anarchy, Serbian King Stephen Uros III surrendered to his own son, Stephen Dusan, who seized the throne and went on to build the Serbian Empire …
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.