On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who had helped construct the protective glass enclosure for the Mona Lisa, pulled off the most famous art heist in history. Taking advantage of the Louvre museum's surprisingly lax security and chaotic inventory system, Peruggia spent the night hiding inside a broom closet. The next morning, clad in the white smock worn by museum workers, he unhooked Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece from the wall, wrapped it in his coat, and walked out the front door.
Astonishingly, twenty-eight hours passed before anyone realized the painting was missing. Because the Louvre lacked a standardized tracking system for moved inventory, guards originally assumed the painting had been taken down by the official museum photographer. The sheer absurdity of the disappearance ignited an international media frenzy.
Millions of people, including author Franz Kafka, flocked to the Louvre merely to stare at the blank space on the wall. French police were so desperate for leads that they arrested and interrogated poet Guillaume Apollinaire and painter Pablo Picasso as potential co-conspirators. Meanwhile, Peruggia kept the artwork hidden in a false-bottom trunk in his modest Paris apartment for over two years.
His luck ran out in December 1913 when he attempted to sell the painting to an art dealer in Florence, claiming he was returning stolen heritage to Italy. The dealer alerted the director of the Uffizi Gallery, who confirmed the painting's authenticity and contacted the police. Peruggia was arrested, but due to widespread Italian public sympathy for his patriotic pretext, he served only eight months in prison while the Mona Lisa returned to Paris as the indisputable rockstar of the art world.