Description
pp. x [2] 241, “In 1911, Leonardo’s da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen off its hooks from the Louvre, remaining missing for over two years. Who took the most famous painting in the world? Was it Pablo Picasso, the upstart Spaniard–and modern counterpoint to the Italian master–in a fit of nationalistic pride, or the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire as an act of artistic revolution? R.A. Scotti’s Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa investigates this largely forgotten caper, and along the way we’re treated to a tour of turn-of-the-century Paris, the birth of modern forensics, and a biography of the enigmatic painting itself. To this day the mysterious theft of the painting the French call La Joconde remains unsolved–only Mona Lisa knows, and she’s not talking.