Like an old song says, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Today, the Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world. Until 1911, though, it was a reasonably obscure painting that mostly only art experts knew about. The reason it became so famous is not the woman’s enigmatic smile in the painting but the fact that, in 1911, the painting was stolen right out of the Louvre, an event that catapulted it into the global spotlight.

The Louvre, a renowned art museum with an irreplaceable collection, naturally draws attention to any theft. The moment the Mona Lisa was stolen, it became a sensation, with stories about the painting flooding newspapers and images of it saturating the public eye. The case’s complexity only added to the intrigue, as it seemed to stagnate for years, keeping the public’s interest piqued.

However, investigators eventually zeroed in on Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian waiter living in Florence, Italy. The investigation was a long and arduous process, involving numerous dead ends and false leads. Then, on December 11, 1913, they discovered the painting in Peruggia’s room.

It turned out that he was a former employee of the Louvre. In fact, he had been hired to make protective glass cases for the Mona Lisa and other paintings. One night, he simply hid in a closet after work instead of going home. He grabbed the painting, hid it under his smock, and walked out of the building, pausing only briefly to deal with an unexpectedly locked door. The theft wasn’t even noticed for days, as employees simply assumed it had been removed for cleaning at first.

The Parisian police believed Peruggia had nothing to do with the theft, preferring artist Pablo Picasso as a suspect instead. However, police in Italy discovered his involvement when he contacted them about the painting. He had apparently stolen it to return it to its ‘proper’ home of Florence, Italy, a sentiment that was fueled by the nationalist fervor of the time. Expecting to be hailed as a hero, he was quite surprised to be arrested instead. While people soon forgot about him, they never forgot about the painting.