Let’s Steal the Mona Lisa!

still a butter salesman. I didn't think that she had anything going on, but she's got a website with a store. A lot of people didn't care about the whole flat I guess anyway, So she makes lip bomb and it's in butter flavor. It's also banana cream and key lime. But let's talk about butter lip bombs. I think we should back up to key lime. I think you're really

missing the market. But it's like, okay, but because that's what you want for Christmas, key line, Poladen lit bone, this is the most depressing thing to So yeah, she um, she has these and they look really budget and they're for sale in her online store for two dollars and forty nine cents us. Um. I'm not even gonna look at what else she sells her because I really care. But here's the thing. So somewhere there in China there's a factory making polodine butter chapstick. Did you know what

the what the tagline is? Oh no, there's a tagline, put a little South in your mouth he has. With the flap that she got, she lost her whole empire. Four. That's funny. It's a little South in your mouth. She's like, I'm I'm leaning into it. Yeah, I gotta sell maga butter crowd just just sucking on a butter flavored lip bomb. Now, so there you go. Good, good for her. Let live your life. That's ridiculous, itous, ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I mean

it polydene butter products. So I mean, right there, I've got one for you. He got a moment, Yes, I did, not going anywhere. Okay. This is a story of a patriot, cause I know you love patriots, and it's a proud, blue collar anti hero, a man who wanted to right the wrongs of Napoleon for stealing a great treasure from the land of his birth and so are blue collar anti hero. He felt he was compelled to act. He had to for his country and their pride, and you know,

he was a patriot after all. So one day he went to the Louver and he stole the Mona Lisa. Oh wow, this is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heights and cons. It's always murder free and ridiculous. All right, Elizabeth, Yes, what do you know about the painting the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Ven It's a painting you see, it's in the Louver, and uh, you know, I've never seen it in person. Really, Yeah,

you've been to the Loop. It was a long story and very complicated how I was toward it at every turn, trying to get in there. You actually did try to get yeah, but it just didn't work out anyway. But from what I understand, it's first smaller than people realize. Yeah, yeah, I've I've been to the Louver. I've seen it in personally. Yeah, I'm just a world traveler, Elizabeth, A jet center. If

you will be jealous, It's okay. I'm used to it, so, yeah, I saw It's it's tiny, I mean not tiny, like a postage stamp tiny, but it's like kids art project size and painted on like basically a table topic. Yeah, and I've seen photos from that from the room in the gallery where it's just like constantly such a huge crowd of people around that. I got really lucky that when I was there it was not like that when

I were Yeah, did you know? Yeah? No, wait, that was jay z I. Sometimes I'm like, am I see me? I don't know where do we begin? Where do we end? I don't know. We both agree on Beyonce. So anyway, the Mona Lisa, it's as you said, it's a small painting.

It's usually behind a glass box. It's on the wall and surrounded by people and such that it's you know, if you're going to even try to see it, you're going to be seeing it through hands holding up phones essentially these days now the painting able to tell you a little bit about it. It's known as Joconda, the most famous painting in the world. Also, it's considered the most the foremost masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance era of artwork.

Other than saying Michelangelo's ceiling the Sistine Chapel, like you can think of it as a painting that captured the creation of a new way of looking because he had the Mona Lisa do a three quarter post and up till then, all portraiture had been either straight on or at a slightly different angle, but nobody had thought to do a three quarter so you can see them and like the pose is like a head and bust basically, but the way that she's turned at the angle, it

gives a dimensionality and a life to it. It's just an amazing advancement. And now all portraits pretty much used that post. That he basically changed how we look at a person in a photograph or a painting. So that's what you're not a da Vinci. He's just one of the people that, in small ways he's still impact how we do what we do. He's one of my favorite people. I think you know that I talked about him. He's

I own a bunch of his books. I would constantly go back and reread his journals, and as I said, he taught me to to to see. He also taught me to think scientifically and to think beautifully scientifically. I'm a big fan of the guy right now. Do you know the painting. Well, if I just kind of casually reference, Okay, yeah, hey man, I took art history in college, right, I forget you cultured. I took it because I failed calculus twice and I thought I have to get my g

p A up. I like art, and I took it and I didn't realize I sat down with this, I have to memorize so much. Oh yeah, and a lot of in foreign languages and things like faulivism. You're like faulivism. It was awesome, though. I'm glad I did it. Oh definitely. I'm right there with you, studying art as a gift to give you, so I'm kind of an expert in art. What I'm trying to say. And you understand the background of the Mona Lisa, What do you like about it?

The do you know that in the background, if you look at both sides of the Mona Lisa, the two sides don't match. It's like two different paintings. I love that because it makes it like she's this border land between these two different worlds, and it's very casual, you

don't really think about it. And then obviously there's this spumato technique that makes most smoky and mysterious, and then there's all the like the falling contours and textures of her hair, the water like it's just a lot showing off with what he can do well in to convey that, the mystery and her facial expression. Yes, and then there was of course the great mystery, what is she thinking?

Now Some people have also said that it's a self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, and if you look at some of the drawings of him, it does favor favor as they say, No, I didn't know this, but the Mona Lisa, it being the most famous painting in the world and it being revered. That wasn't always the case, and that was as recently as last century. That wasn't

the case. Like in in nineteen ten, the Mona Lisa was considered a lesser masterpiece, and then nineteen twelve the Mona Lisa was suddenly considered an undisputed masterpiece and the most famous painting in the world. So what happened in nineteen eleven they changed everything for the Mona Lisa. It was stolen, Yeah, that's that's what It vastly improved its value and suddenly it changed not only how we think about like art in terms of like our desire for it,

but how we valued art. It really did change the like the reason why a Basquat painting now is so expensive is because the Mona Lisa was stolen essentially, Okay, so Mona Lisa his other painting that later Ard than She started in fifteen o three, and it took him a long time to paint it. He worked on it over his career. It took him for sixteen years. He was working on until fifteen nineteen. The woman who it is is a woman named Lisa gardj Ardini, and she was a noble woman. She was a wife of a

noble woman. Rather and uh, you know she for a long time people, as I said, people thought maybe with Leonardo, they've now pretty much to side. It is definitely her now. There have been a lot of other mysteries about the painting. We'll get into those in a little bit now. In things were basically leaning towards World War One, and national pride was very big in Europe. Do you do you We've talked about World War One a little bit and you're you're familiar with it. It wasn't just like, oh,

who shot the arch Duke? There was a lot of things that made to World War One. Right now, by the way, as I told you before, we have our patriot or blue collar hero, and I said that Napoleon stole the Mona Lisa. That's according to this guy. Turns out he didn't. Actually, the Mona Lisa was not a spoil of war. The real story is Leonardo brought it with him when he moved to France towards the end of his life. When his patron then became set the Duke of Milan, he becomes the King Francis, the first

of France. So this painting when he dies becomes the property of the king, and then it stays in the court for centuries and survives all the tumult of the French court until boom ba boom, the French Revolution. The French Revolution comes along, and we all know about that. Stuff gets Mona Lisa becomes the property of the French Republic, and the painting is rescued from the palace where it has lived in cloister and nobody ever gets to see it.

And now it is brought out and rehoused in the new Louver Room museum for all the people of France

to see. They love it. Boom. Then comes Napoleon. Napoleon's like, I want it too, so he goes, he takes it, and he goes, I'm gonna put this on my bedroom wall, and he literally goes takes the Mona Lisa and it hangs it on his bedroom wall and there it stays until Napoleon is removed to Elba, and then after his confiscation, it is once again returned to the people of the Republic of France and put back on display in the louver.

But the Napoleon part of the story is why our Italian blue collar anti hero decided to steal the Mona Lisa in the first place. Basically, he got it wrong, but he was like, I'm willing to bet on that, okay, So armed dude, our Italian blue collar anti hero. His name is Vincenzo Perugia. He was a glass man, a glazier, you know, a glacier like So he was hired by the Loop to help fix the glass cases of the museum.

The Mona Lisa, and like many of the other masterpieces, were all behind glass cases and there have been a threat against the Mona Lisa. So the Louve hired this company to make glass cases and to basically, you know, check on all the glass that they could to protect these paintings. And they unwittingly brought a fox in the head. And then exactly so they hire in arm and Vincenzo and he becomes the inside man as a glacier. So in nineteen eleven, at the time of the heist, Vincenzo

Prugia he was twenty nine years old. He lived in Paris with his two brothers. His mama had named her boys Vincenzo and or Lancelotti's name, so the three brothers lived in the tenth Arondesement, which at the time was an Italian enclave mostly and uh, when he came time to steal the Mona Lisa, he's like, Vincenzo, I got to bring it into my brother. So he's like, guys, I got an idea, and so they come up with

his plan and it comes a family affair. If you will, Elizabeth, I want you to be able to imagine this cast. So Vincenzo Puga he was, as I've read about him, not a tall man. He stood about five ft three. Now imagine his brothers probably did too. And he also apparently had a very short fuse to match his very short stature. He was hot tempered. He wants to stopped talking to his own brother over a one franc debt. He's just like very stubborn guy. Basically, I kind of

pictured him as like the evil super Mario brother. Warrio and his brothers are like these two Luigi's okay, so his brothers, as I told your name, those two had a nickname for Vincenzo. They called him pass or meg Leoi. Pardon my Italian, but it translates as nut or the madman. So knew who like He's warrior? Okay, yeah, Now this guy our warrior. He's the one who has to keep his cool and level head while he attempts to steal

the Mona Lisa with his brothers and a family affair. Okay, Elizabeth, I'd like to close your eyes and to picture it. It's Sunday night in Paris. The streets are swollen with people out enjoying a warm late summer night. It's August one. You are out among them, but not for long. When no one is looking, you shoot a crossbow bolt high into the air. It strikes its target, It lodges into the stony parapet of the castle wall of the Lura Plaza, and you grab the rope with gloved hands and with

a graceful walk up the wall. Soon enough you are high above the city of lights. That sounds about right for me. Obviously, you are not there for the trains, and you're you're working. You got other plans on this trip. You are a cat burglar, just like Carrie Grant or Danny Ocean and the boys. Your office for tonight is the rooftop of the louver. Now you wait a few hours for the moment to strike. Sometime around three am, you decide the museum has fallen, still silent. It's like

a crypt down there. You're like, I can get work now. You've already removed a glass panel, You've tied off a rope system and you all you have left to do now is to lower yourself successfully into museum, which you do. You're good at this, yea, and with a flourish you land like a cat. You spy your target waiting for you,

your prize if you will. The Italian Renaissance painting Death of the Virgin by Michelangelo Maurici de Caravaggio, the master work is Strike Love Caravaggio, by the way, But you're not shopping on this trip. You were hired to steal this work for a former nun, one who became an heiress to a Colorado gold strike fortune. She wants the painting of Mary for her new home in the Rockies, and you're like, bet so, you're only happy to oblige her,

and you tiptoe over to your prize. When you spot these three Italian handy men, they're not quiet, they're bumbling, they're arguing. They look like super Mario brothers, right, the three year a dressed at overalls and work smocks, blue denim jackets, denim hats. It's long past closing time, it's like three four the morning. At this point. There should be no one in the louver but you in the security guards who were pretty much asleep at this point,

and of course the artwork. Now you're holding very still, hiding in a pool of shadow as you watch Warrio and Luigi's as they cross in the in the the salon, and now you are in the salon care it's the home to all the Italian Renaissance masterpieces, which happens to be where the Mona Lisa is also kept. The three Italian super Mario brothers, they are headed right towards you, and you're like standing there and just a little pool

of shadow. You don't know what to do. The three are silently arguing with their hands back and forth right there, like it looks like a very heated hand talking argument. Now you don't know what to do, so you just remain still. And the three super Mario brothers they walk right up to the Mona Lisa. They look around furtively, they nod at one another, and then quiet as church mice, they unshackle the painting from the security bracing that's on

the wall. Then they remove the protective glass case. The three super Mario brothers, they're thieves just like you. You watch them work. It's professional curiosity, yeah exactly. You're also worried that if they bungle this, you're gonna get caught because they make Yeah, I still gotta steel, but I gotta I'm working here people, exactly, and I have a very specific style. And also they are taking a little tiny two foot painting that's on the boards of poplar.

You're after a twelve foot by eight foot canvas painting. Hell, yeah, figuring how to roll this up without crankling or ruining it. You got issues, right, you don't need this there after some satchel sized paint. What is this amateur hour? But the brothers they work fast to act as lookouts as Vincenza removes the Mona Lisa from the protective glass case. Once he frees it from the glass box, he tucks the wood panels underneath his works mock. He signals to

the other Italian handyman. It's like they they're ready, and there they get the signal and boom. You watch him go. They're like, oh, maybe I can still get to work. You're a little jealous, though, because as I told you, they got that little tiny thing and you still got this eight twelve foot painting. You gotta get down. What you don't see is on the way out, there's a reason not to be so jealous, because on the way

out of the louver, Vincenzo runs into trouble. The brothers split up to make it out on their own, and Vincenzo He's picked a carefully selected escape route, and he finds it it's blocked by a locked door. He's stuck in the museum. He doesn't know what to do. He brought a pass key from the swiped at work. He thought this will be great, but he brought the wrong key match the door. He didn't have time to test. He doesn't know what he's doing, like, what can I do?

What can I do? All of a sudden, he started hearing footsteps. The footsteps get louder. They're approaching, They're coming towards him. Luckily, our warrior. He's a fast thinker, so he pulls a screwdriver from his work pocket and his overalls, and he removes the door knob really quickly. Just two screws pops it off. The light of dawn is now coloring the windows, so he knows he needs to get out pretty much right now. Other workers will soon start

arriving for their Monday shift. The footsteps are drawing closer and closer. He takes a breath, and he calms his nerves, and then he sees the footsteps are not a churity guard, but in fact they are a plumber who is early to work, a funnel plumber. Vincenzo indicates the door handle and holds it up and shows that it's broken. He lifts it to show the plumber the plumber season. He's like, hey, what are you? I get you? So the fellow blue collar worker, he helpfully opens the door from his side

and lets him out. And so now Vincenzo is free, and he and the Mona Lisa escape into the streets. It's tucked under his work smock. Nobody sees a. Vincenzo steps out of the Louver into the morning air, onto the morning streets. The early risers are greeting the day others are headed to work. He looks at the beautiful Tuiliers gardens opposite the Louver plaza. He spots his brothers. They made it out too, and then a whistle he catches their attention. The three lineup. They make it to

a train station, buy tickets, and disappear. They have stolen the Mona Lisa. Yes, and after this short little break, Elizabeth, I'll be back to tell you what happened to my man Vinnie, Mitchelle and Lan. After this little break, I can't wait, and we're bACC Elizabeth. Hey, let's get back to the Louver, a place you haven't been. But just try to imagine it, all right, if you can believe it. The next day, there's a blank spot where the Mona Lisa was hanging day before. But the part you won't

be able to believe is no one notices what. No one notices the Mona Lisa is missing. There's just this empty space on the wall. A whole day passes. This wealthy dilettante artists a cat named Louis Barrow, right. He likes to come in and paint in the louver and he sits there by Jichan, by the Mona Lisa, and he he gets busy with his like little canvases and does his own little like yeah, like what was it on plane? Fresh plane? That's usually outside, I know, but

he does it indoor. He does like a non plane air a different. So louis sitting there with all set up, and he's bummed, miffed because the Mona Lisa is not there. It's just a blank space. So he's like so of course, being a wealthy dills and he has to speak to the manager of the loop like no, I'm just kidding. But he goes out to a guard and he's like, hey, hey, hey, I'm Louis Borrow. I'm always you know, you may recognize me that I don't know. The Mona Lisa is missing.

Do do you have good words? And now the guard tells him the photographers, right, and he's like, no, Now what this means is the photographers they've been taking the masterpieces up onto the roof of the loop and taking photos of them with these cameras that they developed to do really large format, so they're up there like on sticks and the you know, the old wooden box cameras, and they're taking them, these amazing paintings up into the fresh light and taking photos of him. He thinks, oh,

that must be what it is. But louis the dilettant. He's like, but wold you please go and ask the photographers when it will be back right. Security guys like, are you for real? There are so many paintings to paint, like find another something else, all right? But he's like, no, no, I must have the Mona Lisa. Right. So the guard goes He's like, all right, per whatever. He goes off, bacles off, he talks to somebody, or pretends to. He comes back and he's like, look, buddy, I don't know

what to tell you zip painting. He is not with the photographers, so I cannot tell you when it will be back and I it's like literally the dilettan artists. He's like, may, we may wait, but my friend, if the photographers don't have it and it is not here on the wall, well then where is it? And the

guard he starts putting two to two together. He gets to cat and he's like, oh man, so fully six hours after the Mona Lisa has been stolen, they realize it's been stolen, so all day at work, so the gargos tells his boss, look, we've got a little problem. So the curator of the loop is this man named Georges Benedett. Now news breaks because the Mona Lisa is

still like it's a big deal. May not be the most famous painting in the world, but still it's a national treasure and people are like art crying, right, so they just cannot believe that. George, he has to go before the French press and he's like, oh, this is this is nothing. It's only a practical joker with dare to deprive the French people of their national treasure, right, And he's like, what idiot could possibly think they could sell offense the Mona Lisa. I mean, come on now, right,

that's that's a good point. Now the cops are like, we don't think it is a practical joke. Are the gendarmes They believe it is a ransom job. So there they think soon someone will step forward and go, I will give you back your national treasure for this a large amount of francs. Al Right, that's the idea that

they're going for. They're like, so the gendarmes, they tell the press, it's just like, look, it would be like maybe two days tops, right, right, two days, and so the newspapers are like, okay, two days, two days past, nobody steps forward, nobody asked for a ransom to go back to the gendarmes, what's is going on with the

Mona Lisa, they're like, maybe three days. So the French police, though, they have very few clues to go off of, so they're stalling because they got nothing right, but they do have Alphonse Elizabeth you know who al phones bout Tolan is Okay, I didn't either. But this guy, he's apparently the father of the bug shot and a camera love each other very much. He is the father of the mug shot, and he invented the game. Basically, he's like, yeah, we get photos of these people, will know who they are.

People are so unlike the Mona Lisa. The mug shot is an unflattering profile shot, not a three quarter turn right, It yet still reveals humanity in a way. Yeah. Old mug shots are pretty pretty. They're amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we talked about this anyway. So this the dude to invents the lug shot, he's a French cop and he's on the case, right, So he's like, all right, French police with me, We're going to look for clues, right, And so they go and they find a fingerprint on

the glass case a clue. This feels very much like a Wes Anderson montage. I'm about to be putting you're welcome. So he has all two hundred and fifty seven employees of the louver who worked that day submit to be fingerprinted to see if they are the one whose fingerprint it was. But the problem with his plan is is Vinny Perugia is in the wind. He's not coming back. He's done. Meanwhile, the French police they have to hit the beat there on the streets. They're using the old

shoe leather technique. They're handed out leaflets. They're asking all their snitches, like anybody know anything more days past, nobody knows anything. Six hundred leaflets are passed out. Frank reward is offered. Nothing. Nobody's coming forward, right, except for once the reward is offered, people start coming forward family members. They start stitching on their family that it was my more freend Gan Luke. I swear you should come in and I'll rest him. So people like like, no, no,

there was my coworker and my boss Frandi. Go through his house and you'll search, you will find it. So people are doing that, and then you know, some folks are real certain that it was the Germans. It is definitely right. And then there's the busy bodies and paranoid types who were there are two cents in But this is the only thing that the French police I have

to work with basically Twitter. So the newspapers around the world they picked this up and it becomes a media circus, and you know, this is basically one of the first big media sensations of the young century. It happens before the Lindbergh baby. This is I don't remember this happening. Yeah, well,

you're very young at the time. So anyway, a week past and the gendarmes have no suspects, no leads to go on, just a bunch of frenchmen going it's the Germans, right, So people are like, why wo the guys, I want to steal them on that, Lisa, come on, your French did of course the most French thing to do. After a week has passed and there's no Mona Lisa. What do you think they did? You said, the most French thing that could possibly do. Tell me whatever offensive thing.

They reopened the loop after they shut it for the week, and they invited crowds, crowds to come into the museum and to stare at the blank spot where the Mona Lisa used to. People came, he had the droves and they stood there like, look at its absence. It doesn't want powerful. And one of the famous lookye lose was your man Franz Kafka because change in metamorphosish. Yeah, they're all staring at it. One solitary too, yeah, smoking French cigarettes.

Well it speaks to me, just talking like a mean So now you may be asking, Elizabeth, yes, probably whatever it is, what happened to the Perugia brothers Can I make a guess? Yes? Please? Did they go to the Homeland? Did they go to Italy? Oh it's a really good guess. No, No, did they take to the sewers? Another good guess? A better guess. I like that one once again. I'm sadly No.

While everyone was staring at the blank space or the Mona Lisa used to be the superhero Mario brothers, they were in the wind and specifically we'll focus less on Michel and and talk about Vincenzo because he stole the Mona Lisa and he has it. He takes it to a very special place, his boarding house. He puts it on the far boards of his boarding house. He just hides it there and he's like, oh, this may not be good because of the moisture. So he puts it in a stuffs it in a trunk and then that's

where it stays in a boarding house. And I wish that he was a real sicko and like put with him and like y and like a real sickish she was a real sicko and put it under his trench coat. I mean, yeah, he wear clothes into the trench coat. But then like go to the loose and stare at the blank wall with it under his trench coat with everyone else, and he should go in like flash people

with it and just come a quick instantly. He's wearing nothing under his trench coat, but he's got it sort of like tied in his like one of the sandwich boards, and he's a flash very well. He's a tiny guy. Do you know what I learned? Michael Jordan's the reason why he wore big shorts was because he always wore his U n C shorts from college underneath his professional under his college under his bowls uniform. So that's why he had to get bigger. The whole reason it was

not because like he thought it looked dope. He's like, I want to hide the fact I'm weird my lucky shorts from every game apparently during his whole career, the same pair of shorts. Anyway, So boarding house Vincent Perugia, he's got the Mona Lisa stuffed in the trunk and he's just hidden there like like Michael Jordan's boxers. The French cops they come to his place because he's one of the loub employees, and eventually to his house and was like, oh, we want to talk to you know,

my man Vinny sick. He's saying really offensive hand gestures. So the French cops in question. I mean, but Vinny, he stays cool, hot headed as he is. My man is like cooler than a polar bears toenails, and my big boy would say right, I mean, Vanny handles the cops questions with ease and the lawn and grace. He's just batting him away. He's like, oh, I have an alibi, and he takes a dragon. He gets like where I made French for this? You say, see how quick that was.

So they're like, well, where were you? And he's like, I'm a friend. I was just simply working at a different place that day. And they're like, well that works out for us. Arms left working somewhere else. And the tell tale Mona lisas like they're probably ashing on it as they're smoking with him right everywhere they go, just a cloud of smoked so Mona Lisa chilling out in the trunk. We'll set that aside for a second. Now. The cops they missed the Mona Lisa and they stopped

harassing Vincenzo because they're busy. They have to go harass all the famous um artists and poets of the area, because one of them clearly must have done They On the September seven, the cops go and they bust the poet Giampa and on suspicion of involvement. And now he turns out to the Apollonia's secretary, dude named Gary Perey. He snitched to a French newspaper and said, oh, yes, it's Apollonaria. You need to get after him. He was

telling me all about it. Allegedly he did this because the two of them had like a spat and yeah, you wanted to and sell it up. That's the way to do it, Yes, exactly, So apollon Are He gets arrested and the cops they rough him up. They're like, where is the Mona Lisa And he's like, I'm a poet, man, I can take so many blows, like I heard Sarah has it. And he does unspeakable things to He walks around with a big coat. It's got like a sandwich

board in front of him. So to get himself out of his legal predicament of poland Are the poet, he gives you know up the most famous person he knows who is Pablo Picasso. He was like, Mona Lisa, get the big fish. The cops. They take their floating cloud of smoke down to picasso studio and they're like, knock, knock, knock, and since Picasso like open kicks whatever. Woman's office lad, and he's like, you're not my wife gets off to so he opens the dark. Pocassa is like, who told

you I stole the Mona Lisa. I am offended, don't you know? I only steal ideas from African artists. Picassa didn't say that, but he could have held. What Podcasta did say was oh, thank god the police. Yes, guys, look, I have no idea what the Mona Lisa is, but I'm so glad you are here because interestingly, I happen to have some lost artwork from the Louver and it may not be stolen, but if you could do me a solid, since you're going that way, could you return

these stolen artworks to the Louver? Would you do that for a brother his own stuff? Yeah? You know he had stolen stuff from the He just tried to give it to the cops because he's like, there it's like a library. Fine. Amnesty it's like we're cool. Now. Look I thought he was like, oh, I have these pieces that were stolen from the Louver and they're his painting. Yeah, sure, get hung up. But what it was, you know, the demos da Avignon, it was the mass for that painting.

That's what he gives back, Like, look, if you invented cubism, you can have this back. He very much was doing a library fine amnesty. Yeah, he was like if I'm not, don't tell Georges's brock. I've done this. I want all

the credits. So another suspect in this stuff, by the way, is the American fat cat banker JP Morgan in yeah, because at the time JP Morgan was famous for taking like a steamliner over to Europe and then he'd take his vast wealth and drag it around Europe and just vacuum up whatever, like what he could from like the houses that have these paintings and statutory He's like, oh, you're falling on hard times, you German Baron. I'll buy

up that stuff. So everybody knew about JP Morgan doing this, and the rumors of him being involved got so bad that the old robber Baron himself had to like come out and say make a statement to the press, like I didn't take it all right. People, So they're like, okay, He's like, look, I am offended. I am you good. People should know that I only steal money from orphans, the infirmed, the elderly, suckers in the stock market, but I would never steal artwork. Once again, he didn't say that.

Despite all these accusations and denials and arrest and snitching, and the Mona Lisa remained missing, still nobody could find it. Two years passed as the seasons changed, Elizabeth. No, but after this short break, I'll tell you what happened to the Mona Lisa and how is finally returned to the people. All right, where were we in Paris? Yeah, that's right, two years after Vincenzo told the Mona Lisa okay, warrior. Yeah, so he makes it sound like the Mona Lisa a warrior.

It's not our warrior, Perugia. He sides, you know, what's been long enough. I'm gonna go and try to sell this painting on the black market. Easy enough. It's just the most famous painting in the world. He's like, look, I need to get a big payday. I've written a letter to my dad telling him, im, we got a big score. I need the money, right, I need the money that changes lives. And it's now so we're just

moments before War one is about to kick off. People are getting down, so like, I got to catch a train. No wait. He originally took this because he was mad because it was Italian in a French museum. And now he's like, but I need money. I'll undress all of that for you, the naked truth of it. And I can't wait. So my man Vincenzo, his Luigi brothers, they're out of the picture. That Lancelot Dama, they're gone for this point. It's just him working an antique dealer named

Alfredo Gary. Right, he calls us. He sees the dude has ads. Right, this guy has like as a bout, like the bus benches, Yeah, the bus benches of Rome Milan. Yes. Basically he's like in Florence, he's like, look, I'll buy Grandma stuff because the people like, oh, hey, we need money to get out of Italy. So like so he's like, yeah, pretty much doing a big push at this point. And so so Vincenzo was like, I can slip something past this guy. He seems like he's got a little bent

nose on stuff. He won't you know who, look past it. The guy's like, oh, you got the Mona Lisa. Okay, whatever, you bring it by the shop. Let's see yet, right, So he shows up with the Mona Lisa. He brings good by the shot. He's like, hey, here it is. So the guy afraid of Gary's like, that's the Mona Lisa. What's on the back authenticated? And there's like appropriate stickers, the louver marks and everything. He's like, this is the Mona Lisa. Man, do you know you have the real

Mona Lisa. No one lied to you. This is the real thing. And he's like, I know. I want to sell it to you. And he's like I got to get out of it. So he's like that. He's like, okay, look, I know a guy at the you Fitzi Museum in Florence. He's the guy. If you want to sell this, he's the one. I'll have him authenticated because I'm pretty sure it's the real deal. But I'm just a humble dealer of antiquities. Where do I know antiques and such? So

let's call my dude, right now, museum, you've been to that? Okay, we've both been to this. What do you you love that one? It's like the little rooms and you go through and have that huge plasa. So he just feels really much like you've stepped back in time. Exactly. Do you have any favorite paintings, because there's a bunch of Caravaggia.

Is there there a bunch of care of as. I saw an exhibit of Artemisia Generalisti, which is another one of my all time favorites in the style of Caravaggio very much, but yeah, that was and that was just breathtaking seeing the brush strokes and paintings up close. It's

just it never gets old. It's always just takes the breath away and actually see the brustaurant, but particularly at the feet see and like other galleries in Europe, it's just to be in that kind of space, that space and is it enhances the experience totally gilded wool when you're on the tour in the continent. So the director of the Offizi at that time was a man named Giovanni Polgi. Now Giovanni he gets contact by the antique dealer and he for whatever reasons that only he knows,

he agrees to meet Vincenzo. He's like, bring them by. Oh He's like, I don't know. You gotta come to us. And he's like, really, I gotta leave Florence, Okay, I come up to you. So a meeting is arranged to take place in Alan, right, So Giovanni travels up to Milan. Vincenzo arrives at the appointed place, and of course he has the Mona Lisa with him. He just opens up his coat and he's like, look, you still got the

sandwich park. You are one hairy man. You are a kinky son of So just SIT's under his arm, basically like wrapped in brown paper or whatever. He throws it down on the table, unwraps it. The museum director inspects the painting, he has the same reaction. He's like, this is the real thing. What do you You got the real Mona Lisa here? And guys like yeah. He's like oh so if And he's like, now, how much for that's what I want to know here? How much? What

are you gonna pay me? And he guys like okay, He's like, well why did you what are you doing with this, and he's like, I stole the masterpiece for Italia. Yeah, but I bring Mona Lisa home because that's the Napoleon. He'd take out a painting out a tree and he goes off. His hands are flying and going crazy and he's just going all about patriotic fervor. And they're not the long because I told you it's about to be

World War One. Everyone was like, oh yes. And then if it's not the Germans, it's the French, you know. So what's his museum director gonna do? Is he gonna buy the paintings for they? Tell you? Or is he gonna call the police for it? Tell? Yeah? What's he gonna do it for? It? Tell you? Poggy. He needs a moment to think. Okay, he says, I'm going to need to raise the funds. I don't have that money on me and here in the suit, so let me

go talk to people. And he's like, okay, but do you mind if I if I hold onto the painting and I showed the people, I go, I'm trying to buy this because they'll they'll believe it if I have it in my hands. He's like, yeah, no problem, Like you go, you take it, and so he's like, okay, for safe keeping, I hang onto. It's like perfect, So he leaves. Vincenzo leaves black market Warrior. I was like, yeah,

you hang onto the Mona Lisa. I'll come back and I'll meet you here and I'll pick up on my million. The leader and the like or whatever. They remember that a right, So Vincenzo leaves the Mona Lisa with Poggy and the other guy, and so, now what do you think they do? Are you in an o ft with it? They're not me. The museum director immediately calls the police. He's like, Toronto, well there's a award. Well he's doing

he he fights the fight. I mean, this is his calling, right, So he's true to the cause and he calls up the police. He's I have this guy. So thirty minutes later, like a black market Warrior, he's got this rental place or whatever. Half an hour after his meeting, gets a knock at the door and he's like, oh, it's my man. Boy with my money, can do to get and he's like they're adjusting his tire. He opens up the door and there's a Canbieri. Right, So just a bunch of

armed federal police Perugia. He gets arrested, right, was like, I stole a pig back from Napole and I am a patriot, right, still a big max from I stole a big maca from a Napoleon. So he goes to court and I swear to God, that's what it's He sounded like tight my Italian, it's very not what he said. Yeah. So he's in the court and he is surprisingly not a model defendant. What I know, paint your face shocked. He was how do you say in Italian? A night to man. So he was also filled with a passionata

and agita. I'm getting it all out before so other ones. To other people like me, we would have called him unhinged. So during his trial, he would interrupt the prosecutor when he was not doing that, he would interrupt his own lawyer when he wasn't doing that. He would interrupt the judge.

So the judge is like, oh man, So he's like, you know, basically the judge doesn't throw the book at him because they're all Italians and they kind of like the national pride argument that he just stays with this little like he did spark plug of a man going, I do out of us but Italian, but well, you know, and it hadn't been a like United country for that long, no, like at this point, like thirty four a year, yes, eighteen sixty six, looking at like, you know, sixty year,

fifty year. Yeah, So that basically in memory he became Italy. So he has pride and love for a young country exactly. People, they were responding to it, and they keep taking the drum of war, making people feel like, yeah, the gentleman's So his trial is going, not well, but it's going. And then uh, he's Italian to the core in that like Olmert the way you know, he's like he won't bring in his brothers. In fact, instead of like mentioning his brothers, he says, I did it by myself, Like

this impossible. He's like, okay, okay, actually I did it. And he names two other people, not his brother's, he dang friends just they're like whoa. He's like, okay, So there I was with Pablo and JP Morgan and we were just talking we should watch a couples. At one point in his trial, in uh, yet another demand for respect, Vincenzo insists that the prosecution is wrong and that he is not as they keep describing him, just some house painter, but he's actually a puttore, which in Italian means I

am an artist. Right. So in June n the court decides he's also a criminal, like so Vincenzo Pruga. He's convicted, sentenced to what seems to be a rather lenient sentence, and this is likely due to his insistence of patriotism. But he gets one year in fifteen days, and he never gave up his brothers. Good for him, they stay free. Good. A few days after he sentenced, World War One officially kicks off and everyone says, we don't care anymore about

all that. You're going from beauty to bloodshed, and they turned their minds completely away, and the story gets lost to time. Did he get let out to fight? Yeah, he went, and he fought for Italy and then he survived the war yep, And he managed to get married. I have a kid named her, had a daughter named to Celestina Good and then eventually he passed away and he named him, yes, grandson. There is a theory that Vinny wasn't a pay street or even the mastermind of

this crime. And instead, in fact, he was just a hired inside man. And this theory you'll see it online, is that there was a man named Eduardo the val Fierno, and he was the true mastermind of the theft of the Mona Lisa. The story goes, val Fierna was a con man, career criminal. He had been hired by a

French art forger named Eve's Chadrome. And you see, when the Mona Lisa was stolen, not only was the image publishing newspapers all around the world, but suddenly the painting became a sensation, so postcards were being purchased, copies of the original were being purchased, and you know, it became basically the world's first must have dorm room poster, right that's essentially what it is right now. Being a forger,

Eves Drone, he was like, I gottah. So he's like he had anticipated the furor over the stolen masterpiece because he happened to have set himself up with paintings, just scads of copies, and these are he's an art forager, so they look identical. They're basically counterfeits, and he's hoping he could maybe pass one or two office there. The original didn't get a big payday off of like a counterfeit.

So yeah, So the idea is that he knew this demand would be incident and profitable, and he gave him time to paint the counterfeits because he had arranged for it to actually happen. He created the demand. The idea was the forger Sharon hired this con man, valfier No, who in turn hired Vinni Porogia, the self described patriot who ultimately steals the Mona Lisa. And this theory comes to light in nineteen thirty two in the Saturday Evening Post.

But there's more to this story. And because the journalist was named Carl Decker, nobody you wouldn't know him. I don't know him, it doesn't matter. But he was an old fashioned writer of the yellow journalism era. He was a washout from the William Randolph Hurst hey day. And at this point he's years past his glory and he was like, you know, he's a kind of guy who helped get America into the Spanish American War. He got blood right, so now he's like, I haven't had a

good bloody story for a while. But finally he's got a lot of two. I'm feeling lucky. So the journalists. Apparently he crossed pass with the con man val Fierno in nineteen thirteen before the painting had resurfaced, and the French common man spilled his guts to the American journalist and tells him the whole criminal escapade, the scam of it all, And years later the journalist writes it up in the Saturday Evening Post runs the story. There's a

problem with the story though. The story of the scam of the forger Eveshaw Drone and the con man Eduardo de val Fiernano total fabrication. It's more yellow journalism. So Decker. What it Decker had done was basically steal the cachet of the Mona Lisa and make up a story that can maybe you know, get him some little cache of his own. And he waited till no one could refute the story. What are you gonna trust me or some

French criminals? Now, if you can believe it, there's a whole movie that debunks his theory, the documentary about it that goes into like how he's wrong, and uh, there was a bunch of people who want to basically correct the lie, and now just for the sake of it. This is a book review from the Association for Research

of Crimes against Art. The review destroys a recent book that I won't mention the repeated the whole con man in forger story, and I quote the Velfier and the story was long ago rejected as one of two things, either a wholesale invention by Carl Dekker to sell his story or a wholesale invention by a con man in Casa Blanca that pulled the wool down over Mr Decker's eyes. It is a shame, then, that a work of nonfiction professing to tell the true story behind a famous true

crime should so mislead its readers. Without the addition of myth, the story of the Theft of the Mona Lisa is rich and enthralling, with a fabulous cast of characters, the backdrop of free War, Paris and Florence and ripples felt to this day. For not only was the theft of the Mona Lisa the most famous theft of any object in history, but it also inspired other thefts, altered the concept of what makes the work valuable, and proved to be a turning point in the history of art, of

collecting and of art crime. They're like, and this bozo got it wrong. I love it now for what it's worth. I think my man leader nuttered Ven she who was known as a big practical joker, would appreciate all this mystery and lies and creating whirling around his work, and that his work is still creating to this day. I mean the fact that the Mona Lisa remains a riddle, wrapped up in a mystery, ensconsin an enigma and with a smile of an angel. So that's it, Elizabeth, that's

my story. I gotta ask you, though, yeah, would ridiculous takeaway. Well, you know, I'm just thinking about that final book review. But I really love like cattiness in niche interest groups. So pull for you, thank you. I'm really enjoying that.

But I also, you know, I think about too how we put value onto anything, really, but works of art in particular and the story of it all, the story, and he proved that it's the story of it all, and so you can have like technical ability or just like the emotional resonance was something um and and I guess you know, really in more accessible areas of art um you know, when you get more into like some of the postmodern stuff where it has to be explained

to you to understand what that is um. But in the in these terms, there's there's that immediate emotional like you know, connection that people have or an understanding. But then that when we say provenance, we're not just tracking the the ownership, we're tracking the story of the piece as a living thing really, and that always just is

so interesting to me. What can increase the value and then how do we do that like in our own lives, not just for like a piece of art, but things that we have that are important to us because of a story behind it. And so the kind of currency and value of story and the multi joining that part of it. And that was that was my ridiculous takeaway. So thanks a lot, Elizabeth. I knew, I know, I can slide in there like a cloud of dust behind

my ridiculous takeaway? Is it? Uh, you shouldn't name your Sarah doesn't have original thought and it's just so cleverunds here like a xerox copy of a fart. So my ridiculous is a listener that speak for the zards intelligence because he's far superior blah. Anyway, you can find his online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram. Twitter that's where we lie to the public. Twitter is where we put our COVID misinformation. Is that what it Twitter's for?

I thought it was just allfmation. Instagram that's where the truth in the light and the way is found. Um, there's also photos we put up so we won't do any reels. I don't even know what that is. I don't know. I told the Instagram person that does our Instagram account like to do a real thing, and they just gave me the finger. You're you're holding a fishing pole when you said that was the confusing part. You're like, I have to do it real. I got You're like, oh, grandma.

But you can find us there at Instagram where the you know, the interns keeper and uh, the stories are put up there for the giggles, and you know, you get sneak peaks of Epps on both. So hit him up email if you want. We're at Ridiculous Crime at the jamail dot com jail Gmail. Thanks for listening. Ridiculous Trime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by our resident art history themed mail stripper Leonardie vo De Costoon and All Coustin researches by Mona

Marrissa Brown and Andrea Jaconda Conda Conda Conda Camille. Our theme song is by the Duke of Milan, Thomasino Lee and Archie Duke Tim Dudntino. Executive producers are Ben, Paint me like one of your French girls, Bolan and No, and then paint me like one of your French squirrels. Proud we did quiet, say it one more time We dequeous Crew. Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio.

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