The Man Who Walked Out With the Mona Lisa

On a quiet Monday morning in 1911, a man in a white workman's smock walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa under his arm. A helpful plumber even opened the door for him. Vincenzo Peruggia was an Italian glazier who had helped build the painting's own glass case. Nobody noticed she was missing for more than a day, Paris police questioned him in his tiny room and walked away, and for two years the most wanted painting on earth lived a few steps from his dinner table. This is the story of how one of history's simplest heists turned a quiet portrait into the most famous painting in the world, and of the question his trial never fully answered: why did he really do it? Chapters 0:00 The man at the locked door 0:54 A glazier at the Louvre 2:15 Monday, August 21, 1911 3:29 Four empty pegs 4:49 The thumbprint nobody matched 6:09 Two years in a rented room 7:22 A letter signed "Leonardo" 8:42 The trial: patriot, money or mastermind? 10:44 How the Mona Lisa became a legend Sources: Wikipedia (Vincenzo Peruggia), HISTORY (The Heist that Made the Mona Lisa Famous), Slate (Who stole the Mona Lisa? 100 years on), National Geographic (The most audacious thefts at the Louvre), The Week (Stealing the Mona Lisa), The Spokesman-Review (How the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa made it the world's most famous painting), Encyclopaedia Britannica (Mona Lisa), The Art Newspaper (Missing Mona Lisa, 2024), History Hit, CrimeReads, Encyclopedia (Gale). Made with original illustrations, AI-assisted narration and original music. #truecrime #history #mystery #monalisa #heist