The Day the Mona Lisa Walked Out of the Louvre

Strange Crime · September 29, 2026

In August 1911, on a Monday when the Louvre in Paris was closed to visitors, the museum was quiet. A handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia, who had worked at the museum and even helped build protective glass cases for its paintings, walked in wearing a white workman's smock.

He took the Mona Lisa off the wall, slipped it out of its frame, and left through a door that a plumber helpfully unlocked for him. Sources disagree on some details, such as whether he hid overnight in a closet and how he carried the painting out, so we leave those out.

Nobody noticed

Paintings were taken down for cleaning and photographing all the time, so nobody thought much of the empty spot on the wall. It took more than a day for the theft to be reported.

When the news broke, it became a sensation. Thousands of people lined up to look at the empty space where the painting had been. Police questioned several people, including a young Pablo Picasso, who was cleared.

Two years in a trunk

For about two years, the Mona Lisa stayed hidden in Peruggia's small room in Paris, in a trunk. In late 1913, he tried to sell it to an art dealer in Florence, Italy. The dealer contacted the director of the Uffizi Gallery, and Peruggia was arrested. Sources differ by a day on the date of the arrest (December 11 or 12, 1913), so we give only the year.

The painting was returned to the Louvre in January 1914.

The theft made her famous

The Mona Lisa was already admired by art lovers, but the theft turned her into a global celebrity. Newspapers around the world printed her image on their front pages. History.com reports that at least 120,000 people came to see her in her first two days back on the wall.

The painting went back to the Louvre and has stayed there ever since.

Sources