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Filming Mona Lisa's Theft
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http://www.artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2604
Submitted by
Zoe
10 months, 2 weeks, 12 hours agoJoe Medeiros was struck by the robbery in 1911 of the Mona Lisa by Vincenzo Peruggia. As a filmmaker and writer, he was determined to turn it into some kind of film. As he was researching it for a documentary though, he found out that the story really had a lot more to it. Peruggia, an Italian, was bringing the painting back to Florence, Italy as an act of patriotism, holding that Napoleon stole the painting from Italy. To Peruggia, he was only reclaiming Italy's lost property. Medeiros still dug deeper and found that Francis I had in fact purchased the piece from Da Vinci and it was indeed French property. The painting was returned and Peruggia caught, but not before the Mona Lisa toured Italy and before Peruggia became something of a national celebrity, receiving all sorts of food and wine while in jail.
Peruggia was only imprisoned for a little over a year, though he died soon after in WW1. Medeiros though, still holds that there is a lot left unsolved. After all, how did Peruggia outsmart all the guards and police and walk out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa? And was patriotism his only reason behind it? Did he act alone? How did he actually leave the museum?
Medeiros claims that he has dug and found the answers, but those will be kept secret until the film.
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