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

In late August 1911, the Paris-Journal received a letter from a thief who offered to bring them a statue he had stolen from the Louvre. Seeing an opportunity to sell newspapers, the Paris-Journal acquired the statue and put it on display in their front window. The Louvre had not realized it was missing.

To keep the story going, the newspaper invited the thief to share his story. He explained how easy it was to walk out with artifacts. Since the Mona Lisa was stolen, he complained, he might have to wait years before “resuming [his] activities” (162).

The thief, Géry Pieret, operated on a very small scale, but he was connected to important people, including a painter on the cusp of prominence, whose career would be threatened by the investigation into the theft of the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa’s rise was a “centuries-long saga” (164). One of the strangest stories to emerge from it is that of Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apollinaire Kostrowicki, who was known in Paris as Guillaume Apollinaire. He came to Paris and became a poet in the modern new style.

He grew close to a Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso, who had arrived in Paris in 1900 and was revolutionizing