The Theft That Made the Mona Lisa Famous (and Nearly Destroyed Picasso)

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. What followed wasn't just the greatest art heist of all time—it was a scandal that destroyed friendships, exposed the hypocrisy of the avant-garde, and transformed a Renaissance portrait into the most famous painting in the world. This is the story of Vincenzo Peruggia, the Italian glazer who walked out of the museum with the painting tucked under his smock. Of Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet who went to prison for crimes he didn't commit. And of Pablo Picasso, who stood in a courtroom and denied even knowing his closest friend. For all their talk of burning down museums and killing their artistic fathers, when the avant-garde was actually accused of stealing from the Louvre, they crumbled. Picasso lied. Apollinaire was arrested. And their friendship—the soul of early modern art—died in a Paris courtroom.