PK_SP_022 WHEN KUMARI VAIM'S FLORAL CABINET GENTLEMEN VANISHED FROM THEIR KÜRBLA HOME... _ LA DOMENICA DEL CORRIERE IX 1911 / MEEZ V 2025

National Gallery of Art
16. mai kell 04:20
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Days after the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, a suspect stood trial in a red-and-white polka dot shirt.
His name was Pablo Picasso.
When Leonardo da Vinci’s smiling lady vanished from her Paris home in 1911, it became the biggest news story in the world. Mourners swarmed the Louvre just to get a glimpse of the empty wall where she once hung.
Investigators were stumped—until a shocking op-ed appeared in a local newspaper.
In it, an anonymous writer confessed to routinely pocketing small Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and selling some of them to a painter friend.
Hysterically, the writer lamented that they would have to take a break from stealing, now that one of their "colleagues" had pilfered the Mona Lisa and caused such a stir at the Louvre.
This cheeky admission sent Paris into a frenzy. The theft of the sculptures and disappearance of the Mona Lisa—were they connected?
One investigator had a theory. The op-ed was signed under the pseudonym “Baron Ignace d’Ormesan,” a fictional character in stories by Guillaume Apollinaire: avant-garde writer, outspoken critic of museums, and best friend of Pablo Picasso.
Apollinaire was arrested. Under questioning, he revealed that the op-ed writer was Joseph Géry Pieret, a young man who had once worked as his secretary. And pressed further, he confessed that Picasso was the painter who had bought the stolen sculptures from Pieret.
In court, Picasso wept. He insisted he had no idea the sculptures were stolen from the Louvre, and, bizarrely, he denied even knowing who Apollinaire was.
Picasso was released, and Apollinaire was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
So, what was the truth?
Picasso and Apollinaire had nothing to do with the theft of the Mona Lisa. Nor did Pieret, the sculpture thief. The real culprit was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian craftsman who had built the very glass case that displayed the painting in the Louvre.
But as for the sculptures? Picasso was absolutely guilty. He kept the stolen Iberian sculptures tucked away in his studio, fully aware that they were taken from the Louvre. And the wildest part? He used them as inspiration for his own art. 👀
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📷 Man Ray. Pablo Picasso, ca. 1930. Elizabeth McCausland papers, 1838-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
🖼️ Leonardo da Vinci, "Mona Lisa," oil on poplar panel, 30 x 20 in., Department of Paintings of the Louvre
📷 Durand-Ruel Galleries (New York, N.Y.). Artists at the Trinational Exhibition in Paris 1925, 25 May 1925. Walt Kuhn Family papers and Armory Show records, 1859-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
🖼️ Two of the Louvre’s stolen Iberian sculptures, dating from the 3rd century BC, which Picasso hid in a cupboard
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📷 Excelsior, journal illustré quotidien, La Joconde est Revenue, 1 January 1914

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