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sual place. They
as taken off the wall by the official museum
photographer so he could shoot pictures of it up
in his studio By Tuesday morning, when the
Sat:
painting (
Vreturned and it was not in
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the photographer's studio, museum officials were notified. The painting was
Once the
Marn
s gone!
news became public, French newspapers made several claims as to the nature
of the theft. One newspaper *proclaimed that an American collector stole the work and
would have an exact copy made which would be returned to the museum. This collector"
would then keep the original. Another newspaper said that the entire incident was a *hoax
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to show how easy it was to steal from the Louvre.
Many people were questioned about the theft from museum employees to people who
worked or lived nearby, Perhaps somebody ( 3go) someone acting *suspiciously? The
police even questioned Pablo Picasso. Picasso had previously bought two stone *sculptures
( from a friend named Pieret. Pieret ( 4 ) these pieces from the Louvre months before
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the Mona Lisa was stolen. After an *interrogation, the police concluded that Picasso knew
nothing about the theft of the Mona Lisa.
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Luckily, the painting was recovered 27 months after it was stolen, An Italian man
named Vincenzo Perugia tried to sell the work/to a gallery in Florence, Italy, for $100,000.
Perugia claimed that he stole the work out of *patriotism. He didn't think such a work by
famous Italian
in France. What Perugia didn't realize was that although the
Mona Lisa was probably painted in Italy, Leonardo took it with him to France and sold it
100 COOK 10
to *King Francis I for 4,000 gold coins. 861 od gainob
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