The thefts of the Mona Lisa The complete story of the world's most famous artwork

According to Charney (The 12-Hour Art Expert, 2022), "every year anywhere from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand art objects are reported stolen worldwide." Among the most notorious of these crimes is Vincenzo Peruggia's 1911 theft of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. This book recounts the story of that crime and delivers a complete portrait of the famous painting, including its role in popular culture. Charney begins by explaining the Mona Lisa's importance in the history of art. From there he launches into an account of some other early twentieth-century art thefts that preceded Peruggia's crime, manhunt, and subsequent trial. Deftly separating fact from fiction and cutting through the many myths and misconceptions that have grown around the portrait over the years, Charney answers questions such as: Is the painting a self-portrait? Did the Nazis steal it? A time line, source notes, and a selected bibliography finish off this delicious blend of art history and true crime that will appeal to fans of both.

Historian Charney (Brushed Aside) tracks the eventful life of the Mona Lisa in this rollicking account. Florentine nobleman Francesco del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife Lisa in 1503. When the artist died in 1519 France, the still-unfinished painting passed into the hands of his assistant Salai, who sold it to French king François I. Following that exchange, the painting came into the possession of Napoleon, who hung it on his bedroom wall at the Tuilleries Palace. In the early 1800s, it became part of the permanent collection at the Louvre, from where it was stolen in 1911 by Italian handyman Vincenzo Peruggia, who sought to "repatriate" the painting to Florence, falsely believing that Napoleon had looted it from his country a century before. (At one point during the ensuing investigation, suspicion fell on Pablo Picasso because he'd bought Iberian statues stolen from the Louvre several years before.) After the Mona Lisa was recovered in 1913 with the help of an Italian gallery owner, French curators hid the artwork in chateaus during WWII, though Charney notes a nearly three-year gap in which its whereabouts are still undocumented. Throughout, Charney succeeds in separating myth and legend from fact as he uncovers the background behind the artwork's celebrity. The result is both a thrilling tale of true crime and a rigorous work of art history. (Feb.)

An art historian's account of the perilous history of the world's most recognizable painting. After opening with a gripping narration of the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, Charney proceeds with an excellent chapter on the painting's history. This portion includes a synopsis of da Vinci's career and legacy; the author explains how critical reception to the Mona Lisa changed over time, offering valuable perspective on how the theft contributed to the portrait's place in popular culture. From here, the book becomes substantially less compelling. The author devotes an entire section to how Picasso and his friend Guillaume Apollinaire became embroiled in the hunt for the Mona Lisa. This is a wonderful tidbit but--spoiler alert--neither the painter nor the poet had anything to do with the theft. The pages Charney devotes to their actual exploits are merely tangents. The author's account of the recovery of the Mona Lisa is interesting, but his depiction of the search is flat--largely because readers already know the thief's identity, and the author's description of the French detective is unenlightening. The book also has a lot of repetition--at least one whole passage appears twice--and Charney contradicts his own text more than once. He writes, for example, that after the excitement of the painting's return to France, the "phrase 'Mona Lisa smile' became part of the vernacular"--after he has already quoted numerous art critics and journalists commenting on that smile. Charney even reproduces the suicide note of a Mona Lisa--obsessed artist who took his own life in 1852: "For years I have grappled desperately with her smile, I prefer to die." The portion of the text that deals with the painting's entanglements with the Nazis suffers from similar flaws. Readers intrigued by the subject should turn to one of Charney's shorter articles or TED talks on the same subject. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Excerpt © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Jaujard, The Savior of the Louvre, from Chapter 6 The story of the Altaussee art hoard, the largest of the secret storehouses of Nazi looted art, has a fascinating addendum. Among the many enduring mysteries of this period, one that refuses to be resolved regards the fate of the world's most famous painting. For it seems that Leonardo's Mona Lisa was among the stolen paintings found in the Altaussee mine. Or was it? It only "seems" to have been found there, because contradictory information has come down through history, and the Mona Lisa is not mentioned as having ever been in the mine in any wartime document, Nazi or Allied. Documentary evidence states that it was stored at Château de Montal when the war ended, and that it was never in Nazi hands. In most cases, documentary evidence means case closed--that's as close as one can get to an objective historical truth. But what if documentary evidence sources, as well as first-person accounts by people who were there, contradict each another? For its part, the Louvre Museum has remained surprisingly silent regarding the whereabouts of its treasures during the war. It was only in 2014 that an Emmy award-winning documentary film, The Man Who Saved the Louvre, was released and, through it, the story was introduced to an audience that was neither francophone nor specialized in art history. ​​​​​​​The protagonist of that story was Jacques Jaujard. Excerpted from The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: The Complete Story of the World's Most Famous Artwork by Noah Charney All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.