Mona Lisa heist of 1911 concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime

Wow, what a great story!

I'm surprised the thief only served seven months in jail. I can't imagine it being that lenient today.

Just spent 10 mins reading, good story but abridged version:

- An Italian Louvre worker, Vincenzo Perugia, stole the Mona Lisa, claiming his motivation was that the French had stolen works from Italy.

- Years later he attempted to give it back but claim a reward. He changed his story a few times about how he stole it.

- The revelation of the larger crime was that a slick con-man claimed he helped Vincenzo steal the work for the purpose of selling credible fakes to a handful of American millionaires since it was widely reported that the original was stolen.

This is like some kind of real-life Ocean's Eleven.

What's interesting is that there are people willing to pay millions to have a piece of art that they can't show to anybody or brag about it. I guess these people are true art lovers.

The story is entertaining, but the con-man angle tacked at the end is highly dubious. Even if there was reason to believe that Valfierno even existed, its hard to swallow a century-old third-hand tale from an admitted con-man without a shred of evidence. Moreover, there's nothing about his story that explains the theft and plenty that contradicts known details. Sometimes lone nuts really do commit crimes beyond their stature.

Its funny how different this story could have been told, if the plumber hadn't come by.

Interesting story. Valfierno had a very effective PR and insight into the market. He would have made an effective head of PR or Sale.