Vincenzo Peruggia

Lore & Background

Pietro Vincenzo Antonio Peruggia was born on 8 October 1881 in Dumenza, Italy, to Celeste Rossi and Giacomo Peruggia. After moving to Paris in 1908, he obtained work at the Louvre cleaning and reframing paintings, and he was likely involved in constructing the Mona Lisa's box frame, knowing how to open it in minutes. On 21 August 1911, at around 7 am, he entered the Louvre wearing a white smock like other workers, lifted the painting off four iron pegs in the Salon Carré, and took it to a service stairway. There he removed the protective case and frame, hiding them behind student artworks. He used a service door, which a plumber unlocked for him, and left the museum. The theft was not discovered until the following day. Peruggia hid the painting in his apartment in Paris. During the investigation, police visited his apartment twice and questioned him; one detective leaned on the table under which the painting was hidden in a cavity and failed to see it. Peruggia had left a thumbprint on the glass, and his fingerprints were in police files from a prior arrest, but the police forgot to check his prints. After keeping the painting hidden for two years, he returned to Italy by train, then contacted Alfredo Geri, an art gallery owner in Florence, using the name Leonardo V. Geri called in Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi, who authenticated the painting. The police arrested Peruggia at his hotel on 12 December 1913. At trial, Peruggia claimed patriotic motives, saying he wanted to bring the painting back to Italy after it was stolen by Napoleon. The court granted a lenient sentence of one year and 15 days; he served only seven months after appeal.

Reader's Guide

Vincenzo Peruggia's theft of the Mona Lisa had an outsized impact on the painting's fame. Before the theft, the Mona Lisa was known but not a global sensation; the extensive police investigation, newspaper headlines, and public fascination turned it into one of the world's most recognized artworks. The crime also exposed security weaknesses at the Louvre, which had free entry and minimal oversight. Peruggia's motives remain debated: he claimed patriotism, citing Napoleon's plunder of Italian art, but letters to his father suggest he sought financial gain. On 22 December 1911, he wrote that Paris was where 'I will make my fortune and that his [fortune] will arrive in one shot.' The following year he wrote: 'I am making a vow for you to live long and enjoy the prize that your son is about to realize for you and for all our family.' The court accepted his patriotic explanation to some degree, granting a lenient sentence. A court psychiatrist, Paolo Amaldi, posed a riddle: 'There are two birds in a tree. If a hunter shoots one of them, how many are left in the tree?' Peruggia replied 'One!', and Amaldi called him 'imbecile' because the answer was zero. This, alongside popular pressure, induced the court to grant extenuating circumstances. After his arrest, patriotic Peruggism died down, and he has since been compared more to Lee Harvey Oswald than a criminal mastermind. Donald Sassoon in his book Becoming Mona Lisa wrote: '[Peruggia] was, quite clearly, a classic loser.' Peruggia died on 8 October 1925, exactly 44 years after his birth.

Did You Know?

• Peruggia was only 160 cm (63 in) tall, and the Mona Lisa measures approximately 53 cm × 77 cm (21 in × 30 in), so it would not fit under a smock worn by someone of his size; instead he used a service door.
• During the investigation, a detective finished writing his report by leaning on the table under which the painting had been hidden in a cavity.
• Peruggia had left a thumbprint on the glass securing the painting, and his fingerprints were in police files from a prior arrest, but the police forgot to check his prints against their records.
• At trial, a court psychiatrist asked Peruggia: 'There are two birds in a tree. If a hunter shoots one of them, how many are left in the tree?' Peruggia replied 'One!', and the psychiatrist called him 'imbecile' because the answer was zero.
• The New York Times ran the headline: 'Florentines in riot over "Mona Lisa". Crowd of 30,000 sweeps police aside in mad rush to see stolen painting.'