4 Famous Cases of Art Theft: How the Mona Lisa Once Roamed Out of an Art Museum

When an art historian evaluates an artifact in an art museum, he sees a precious wealth of information. When an art admirer browses a museum's collections, she sees a marvelous display of talent and technique. When a thief takes a look at these same pieces of work, what he sees are dollar signs.

Flashing dollar signs.

Since people have been willing to pay for art, there have always been thieves nearby willing to steal art. Over 65 million dollars of stolen art have been recovered since 2004 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Unfortunately, many other pieces remain unrecovered.

The most astonishing of these thefts have been those of world-renowned masterpieces that even a 6 year old child would recognize as valuable. For example, can you believe that the Mona Lisa was once stolen from the Louvre? How much more audacious can a art thief get? Art lovers all over the world were flabbergasted to be told that following month after month of investigation, police could not pinpoint the culprit of the crime.

The Theft of Mona Lisa

Of course, centuries after Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, this work is one of the most famous works of art in existence. Of over 8 million people who are expected to visit the Louvre in 2007, 7 million of these visitors will want to see the Mona Lisa, according to Annie-Marie Andrzejczak, a union official for surveillance agents who work in the museum (source: Times Online, UK Edition).

So, while being the focus of so much attention, how could the Mona Lisa possibily be stolen from under everybody's noses?

First of all, it was something of an inside job. The Mona Lisa was stolen on August 21, 1911 by a former employee of the Louvre who was still known by many of the guards who worked in the museum. This fact, of course, slightly relaxed the security surrounding Da Vinci's work once this former employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, walked in to view it. Furthermore, one of the guards left his post shortly before the theft to smoke a cigarette for a few minutes. These two factors conspired to dramatically reduce the integrity of the security surrounding the painting on this morning in 1911.