FAMOUS PICTURE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 144, 15 December 1913, Page 7

FAMOUS PICTURE

RECOVERY OF "LA GIOCONDA" WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE ART TREASURE STOLEN BY A HOUSE-PAINTER. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright.) ROME, 13th December. "La Gioconda," otherwise " Mona Lisa," the famous picture by Leonardo da Vinci, which was stolen from the Salon Carre of the Louvre in Paris on 21st August, 1911, has been recovered. The Minister of Public Instruction announces that it is now safe in the National Museum at Florence, and that the French Government has been invited to send an expert from the Louvre to identify it. The thief, who made away with what is probably the most valuable art treasure in tho world, turns out to be one Vincenzo Perugia, a house-painter, of Pans. Perugia was working at his trade in the Louvre, and stole ' the " Mona Lisa," concealing it under his blouse. He kept it at his domicile until he read an announcement that a dealer of Florence, named Geri, was organising a loan exhibition. Perugia then wrote offering the " Mona Lisa" for £20,000. Geri then informed Signor Poggi, the director of the famous Ofizzi Gallery, and induced Perugia to come to Italy. The picture was brought in the false bottom of a .wooden trunk. The two connoisseurs ( inspected the picture at an hotel, Signor Poggi securing its removal to the gallery on the pretext of comparing it with the other masterpieces of da Vinci which were there. Tho number and seal 01 th y e Louvr* are still conspicuous on the back of tho panel. The Marquis di San Guiliano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, informed the French Ambassador in congratulatory terms of the recovery of the picture. Perugia states that he stole the picture in revenge for Napoleon's thefts of Italian pictures during his campaigns. [" La Gioconda," or the " Mona Lisa," was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1504. It is the portrait of the wife of a Milanese gentleman, and the enigmatic smile of the lady has bafiled the interpreters from that day to this. The smile ib as elusive as the picture. As a work of art nothing of Leonardo da Vinci is superior. In the estimate oi connoisseurs "La Gioconda" is one of the most beautiful pictures in the world, and no other robbery in the annals of art could have produced such a sensation.} ONLY SLIGHTLY DAMAGED MOTIVE OF THE THEFT. ACCUSED'S MENTAL CONDITION. (Received December 15, 8.10 a.m.) ROME, 14th December. Crowds, including many notabilities, are flocking to the Ufizzi Gallery. The only damage to the picture is a slight abrasion in the cheek and a tiny scratch on the left shoulder. Perugia denies he had an accomplice. II > states that his motive in stealing the picture was that he desired to ensure ai comfortable old age for his parents. PARIS, 14th December. The police have discovered that Perugia was sentenced 1 to a day's imprisonment for theft and a week for carrying firearms. M. Bertillon states that Perugia's thumbprint is identical with that on the Mona Lisa's glass. Accused's former companions state that before leaving Paris, shortly after the theft, Perugia expressed a hope that hewould return with a fortune. He afterwards sent postcards from London, where undoubtedly he was seeking a buyer. The Echo de Paris states tha>t the police in Milan believe that Perugia acted at the instigation of a band of international robbers. ' Perugia has shown signs of mental derangement.