It has long been nicknamed the “theft of the century!”
".
The disappearance of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre on August 21, 1911, had an even greater impact as it was only elucidated after more than two years of mystery.
It is on this unusual episode in the history of the Arts that two Italian comic strip authors decided to return.
The album published by Steinkis last January, signed by screenwriter and journalist Marco Rizzo and designer Lelio Bonaccorso, entitled “For the Love of Monna Lisa”, retraces the completely crazy but very real journey of the man who stole the Mona Lisa.
Return to comics on "the greatest theft of the 20th Century", that of the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Louvre Museum by an Italian employee.
Vincenzo Perrugia - that's his name - an Italian immigrant worker working at the museum, stole the painting of Monna Lisa from the Louvre in August 1911, to bring it back to his country.
He hid it for more than two years under his bed, thwarting all the searches of Parisian investigators, before being arrested by the Italian police in December 1913 while wanting to resell it.
Picasso and Apollinaire worried
The album presents a poor but proud man who looks like a Tramp, a man angry at those who treat him like nothing.
But also an employee fascinated by this woman of canvas and paint who seems to follow him with her gaze and smile in the galleries of the Louvre.
A Renaissance beauty with whom he will begin to dialogue…
Return to comics on "the greatest theft of the 20th Century", that of the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Louvre Museum by an Italian employee.
“The story is full of events that seem to come straight from the imagination of a novelist or a comic book author.
We would be happy to credit ourselves with the invention of the adventures of Vincenzo Peruggia, but this work is indeed inspired by a little-known, although exceptional, parenthesis in European history,” writes Marco Rizzo at the end of the album. , before returning to the very real facts but also to the uncertainties as to the true motivations of the thief, as well as to the part of imagination brought to the story.
The irruption of a certain Pablo Picasso and his friend Guillaume Apollinaire into the story is, for example, entirely faithful to historical reality.
The painter and the poet were indeed suspected and arrested as part of the investigation because one of their relatives, Géry Piéret, had admitted to having sold (or offered) them statuettes stolen from the Louvre museum.
So why not a painting?
It is true that at the time the Louvre and its collections were not as closely monitored.
The museum was in fact like a real sieve, where everyone could come and go without too much difficulty.
Vincenzo left safely, the painting packed in his jacket, under his arm.
Return to comics on "the greatest theft of the 20th Century", that of the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Louvre Museum by an Italian employee.
It remains to be seen what the man's motivations were... Did Vincenzo Perrugia act out of nationalist pride, greed, or even love?
A bit of all three certainly.
The thief celebrated in Italy
Out of money, he tried to resell the painting several times and this is ultimately how he was trapped.
However, he explained during his interrogation that he wanted to return to his country a painting that belonged to him, since it was the work of a great Italian master of the Renaissance.
The thief, who probably did not know that it was Leonardo himself who gave it to King Francis I, was also celebrated as a true misunderstood hero by his compatriots, at the time of his trial, then later at his release from prison.
Students from the University of Florence even organized a collection to help him get back on his feet.
As for love, it is both that of a poor immigrant fascinated by this enigmatic portrait which smiled at him every day, and certainly also that felt for a young neighbor, Annunciata, Italian like him, whom he sought to seduce. and with whom he will end up marrying and having a child shortly after his unfortunate adventure.
The painting, after being exhibited in Rome, Florence and Milan, returned to France and the Louvre.
Beyond the beauty of this painting and the aura of its author, this theft in 1911 undoubtedly contributed to the fame of the unfathomable Monna Lisa.
Without this incredible adventure, would the Mona Lisa have been as well protected today, isolated from the public by armored glass?
Would it have been, more than a century later, the target of pumpkin soup throwing by environmental activists wishing to draw attention to a “sick agricultural system”… Nothing is less certain.
After all, Vincenzo was undoubtedly the best press secretary for Leonardo and his muse… For better and for worse.
“For the Love of Mona Lisa, the Greatest Theft of the 20th Century.”
Steinkis Editions.
Screenplay: Marco Rizzo.
Drawings: Lelio Bonnacorso.
Price: 18 euros.
Return to comics on "the greatest theft of the 20th Century", that of the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Louvre Museum by an Italian employee.