The Leonardo di Vinci masterpiece was stolen in 1911. Its theft and return caused a long-standing sensation.
Even the bandits, three Italians, realized the painting was now too hot to offload. The ringleader, Vincenzo Perugia, hid it in a trunk in his Paris boarding house and waited more than two years before contacting a Florentine dealer, who promptly tipped off the cops.
In a defense that has echoes today in countries’ efforts to repatriate plundered treasures, Perugia claimed he’d been doing his patriotic duty in attempting to return a Leonardo stolen by Napoleon to Italy, its rightful homeland. The most glaring hole in that argument: The artist himself had sold it to King Francis I of France; Napoleon merely requisitioned it from the Louvre to hang in his bedroom. Like many art convicts, Perugia didn’t serve much time, just eight months.
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