The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity

Immediately following the theft, everyone had a theory about who stole the painting and why: Rogue employees, two German painters, the German government, the French government, the Louvre itself. Newspapers questioned fortune tellers and clairvoyants, who provided endless contradictory answers. From their clues, ships and trains were searched, but no Mona Lisa emerged. No one could escape Mona Lisa theories, not even two swimmers, who found a message in a bottle claiming the painting had been cast into the sea.

Forensic science was a fairly new technology in 1911. Previously, the police were charged with maintaining order, not solving crimes. Now, thanks partly to Louis Lépine, the police were learning how to conduct police work. Lépine partnered with forensics science pioneer Alphonse Bertillon. Together, they made a “superhero duo of early criminology” (63), but they had flaws.

Now a crime scene, the Louvre remained closed and occupied by the police. The Mona Lisa’s theft “was a national embarrassment” (64). During the search, the theft itself became art. The investigation revealed that security was careless and unsystematic. Everything might be either suspicious or normal, but it was difficult to know which.