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Before the Mona Lisa went missing in the summer of 1911 she was a little known work by Leonardo da Vinci. Painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, da Vinci never delivered the painting to the patron who had commissioned it.  Instead, he took it with him when he moved to France.  King Francis I “obtained” the painting when da Vinci died. For years it was hidden away in royal palaces like the Fontainebleau and Versailles. Insurgents claimed the Mona Lisa to be “property of the people”  during the French Revolution.  Later for four years the Mona Lisa hung in Napoleon’s bedroom.   It was installed in the Louvre at the turn of the 19th century.

In August 1911 an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia was working at the Louvre installing glass cases over several important paintings including the Mona Lisa.  Peruggia had decided that it was his duty to return the painting to Italy.   At the end of the workday he hid in a closet where he spent the night.  At some point he pulled the Mona Lisa off of the wall, removed the painting from its frame and hid it under his white worker’s smock.  When he attempted to exit the museum he discovered that the door was locked.  In a panic he removed the door knob but the door still wouldn’t open.  Fortunately for him a passing plumber also working in the building successfully opened the door and Peruggia walked home.   He stored the Mona Lisa in the false bottom of a trunk in his small apartment.

No one at the Louvre noticed that the Mona Lisa was missing until a visitor asked why it wasn’t on display - a full 28  hours after it was taken.  The press had a field day blaming the inept French government that ran the Louvre.  Headlines splashed across the world. Sixty detectives were assigned to the case.  Pablo Picasso was implicated and then cleared. The head of the Paris police resigned in shame. 100,000 people lined up to see where the Mona Lisa had hung on the wall.  As they say, a star was born.

A little more than two years after the heist Peruggia thought that the coast was clear and approached an art dealer in Florence, Italy saying that he had the Mona Lisa for sale.  The art dealer called the police and Peruggia was arrested.  He served just 7 months in jail. Meanwhile, the Mona Lisa was celebrated in a triumphant tour of Italy before being returned to the Louvre in 1914.  Today it is one of the most recognized works of art in the world.

 Question:  Why did da Vinci never deliver the painting to the patron that commissioned it?  We all have paintings that we don’t want to give up. Was that it, or was he in love with the Lisa that sat for the painting?