Contrary to popular belief, the painting was not among the works of art stolen from Italy by the French general. The Mona Lisa arrived in France in a perfectly legal way, being handed over and sold by Leonardo himself to the French monarch, Francis I, in 1518.
The Disappearance of Antoine Watteau’s painting (1939)
On June 11, 1939, the painting “The Indifferent» by Antoine Watteau, worth seven million francs, disappeared during the day from the Schlichting room of the Louvre without anyone noticing the slightest. Only one tour guide noticed the absence of the work.
Two months later, a 24-year-old Russian painter, Serge Boguslavsky, voluntarily returned it, stating that he had stolen it to… restore it!
He was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine, with a five-year ban on entering France.
The Sword of Charles I (1976)
The military sword of Charles I of France from the House of Bourbon was stolen during an armed robbery at the Louvre museum on the night of December 16, 1976, specifically from the famous Apollo Gallery, the same place where the recent jewelry theft took place. The attackers beat two guards and disappeared. The sword was never found.
The sword was made for Louis II of France and was used at the coronation of Charles I in 1824. According to the museum’s website, it was then converted into a blade and scabbard to be used by Napoleon III (Bonaparte) for his wedding at Notre Dame in 1853. The sword was given to the Louvre after its diamonds were sold. crown in 1887.
Armor of the Rothschilds (1983)
A Renaissance-era helmet and suit of armor made in Milan, donated by the Rothschild family to the Louvre, mysteriously disappeared on the night of May 31, 1983. It took almost 40 years to be returned: in 2021, an expert on military artifacts alerted the authorities when he recognized the pieces in a private collection. The armors returned to the museum.
@MinistereCC The central office for the fight against trafficking in cultural property (OCBC) returned @MuseeLouvre 2 works from national collections stolen in 1983. This 16th century breastplate and helmet were seized by the #PoliceJudiciaire before their return to the art market. pic.twitter.com/hydriEX5jK
— Police nationale (@PoliceNationale) March 3, 2021
The Last Heist Before The Royal Jewels – A Koro (1998)
On May 3, 1998, at noon, an unknown person took down the painting “The Road to Sèvres” by Camille Corot from the wall. The project, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, has not been found to date.
The most impressive museum robberies around the world…
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1972)
Three masked men with machine guns broke into the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on the night of September 3, 1972, taking advantage of renovation work.
After immobilizing the guards, they grabbed 18 paintings (Rembrandt, Rubens, Bruegel, Delacroix, Corot, Millet) and dozens of jewels. They would have stolen even more, but as they tried to escape through a security door an alarm was triggered and they were forced to leave several paintings behind. To date, no one has been charged with the thefts.
Only two objects – a locket and a painting attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder – have been recovered.
The thieves gained access to the roof of the building and using a rope descended into the museum through a skylight.
The “hit of the century” in Boston (1990)
In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. They tie up the guards and leave with me 13 masterpieces – including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet.
The loot is estimated at half a billion dollars. The heist became a documentary series, This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist, at Netflix reminding everyone of the great mystery of a robbery that was never solved.
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