The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
On October 19th, a heist at the Louvre in Paris sent shockwaves throughout the art world and became the hot current events story for the end of October. Late-night hosts made jokes, and many people designed Halloween costumes inspired by the incident. But the robbery has also provoked public debate surrounding museum security. But this is not the first time that the Louvre has been the site of a daring robbery. How can the Louvre learn from mistakes made a century ago that enabled the theft of the Mona Lisa?
On August 22, 1911, the painter Louis Béroud visited the Louvre to make sketches for his painting Mona Lisa au Louvre. At the time, the Mona Lisa was not particularly famous. It was just one of several works by Leonardo da Vinci in the museum’s collection. Painters and art historians, however, were more interested in the work, with some writers recognizing it as one of the greatest paintings of the Italian Renaissance. Béroud entered the Salon Carré, in the same wing as the Galerie d’Apollon, where the 2025 heist took place, and found an empty space on the wall where the Mona Lisa should have been. At first, he alerted a guard, who said that the painting may have been removed from the wall to be photographed. However, the museum soon realized that the painting had actually been stolen.
Like the more recent robbery, museum visitors were evacuated, and the museum was shut down. Police and journalists began speculating as to why someone would steal the painting. One of the Louvre’s curators suspected that the thief would create a copy of the painting and place it on the gallery wall so they could keep the original. A Paris police prefect guessed that a disgruntled museum employee may have taken it. Others believed that the perpetrator may demand a ransom from the French government. Newspapers began reporting that the painting had been cited in the United States, Japan, Russia, and other places. A conspiracy theory began to circulate that the banker J.P. Morgan had financed the heist so he could add the Leonardo masterpiece to his own collection. Similar to the 2025 jewel heist, many also seemed skeptical whether the painting would ever be returned to the Louvre.
The search for the Mona Lisa was incredibly thorough. French authorities even questioned the writer Guillaume Apollinaire and the painter Pablo Picasso, suspecting they might have been involved in the incident. Police assumed that if the perpetrator had any demands, they would make themselves known within two days. However, the painting remained missing not for two days, but for two years. In December 1913, a man calling himself Leonardo Vincenzo reached out to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, saying he had a painting to sell. Poggi and local art dealer Alfredo Geri saw the work and confirmed that it was, in fact, the Mona Lisa. The duo contacted the authorities and had the man arrested. They then uncovered his true identity.
Vincenzo Peruggia was originally from Lombardy, in northern Italy. He had worked at the Louvre as a craftsman, building frames and protective cases for some pieces in the museum’s collection. During his interrogation, he confessed that, though he no longer worked at the Louvre, he still had one of the white smocks most museum employees would have worn at the time. He admitted to wearing his smock to the Louvre to blend in. He had removed the Mona Lisa from the wall, went to a nearby stairwell, removed the painting from its frame and protective case (which he likely had worked on), wrapped it in the smock, and then walked out of the museum.
In 1911, the museum had very little security and did not charge admission. There was close to nothing stopping Peruggia from taking whatever he wanted. As Peruggia was a former museum employee, police questioned him several times about the incident, but he was never considered a suspect. Authorities even searched his apartment, but failed to find the painting. He kept the work in his apartment for roughly two years before returning to Italy and contacting Poggi and Geri. While he obviously expected to be paid for the painting, his motivations were not solely monetary; they were also political.
Peruggia was an Italian nationalist who believed that a painting by a Florentine master like Leonardo ought to hang in an Italian museum rather than in Paris. Today, in conversations about the restitution of art and antiquities to their places of origin, some have remarked that the Mona Lisa should be returned to Italy. Last year, the renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass made a similar comment, prompting public outcry about the painting’s actual provenance. However, since Leonardo’s death, the Mona Lisa has spent nearly all of its life in France. Leonardo took the painting with him when he left Florence for the court of the French king Francis I. When Leonardo died in 1519, he left many of his belongings to the French state, including the Mona Lisa. Peruggia, however, was under the erroneous impression that the Mona Lisa had not been in France for centuries, but had been looted from Italy during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Italian campaign in the 1790s. While Napoleon brought many Italian works of art to France, the Mona Lisa was not one of them.
After Peruggia’s arrest, Poggi announced that the Mona Lisa had been recovered. It was displayed at the Uffizi Gallery for two weeks before being returned to the Louvre. In a little over two years, the Mona Lisa went from being known only to artistic and academic circles to being one of the most famous paintings in the world. The theft put the painting’s image on the front of every major newspaper during coverage of the heist and the investigation, catapulting it to global fame. And it has remained the world’s most famous painting ever since. In a way, the Mona Lisa is the art world equivalent of a Kardashian. It’s famous for being famous.
The Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon, where the October 2025 heist took place
In the aftermath of Peruggia’s heist, the Louvre instituted more thorough security measures. They hired more guards and installed an alarm system, among other changes. Dozens of other museums around the world also adopted similar security improvements. The heist also pushed museums to strengthen ties with law enforcement and other groups to aid in recovering stolen items should robberies occur.
While the 2025 heist perpetrators did not need to hack into or disable any of the museum’s security systems, it would not have been difficult to do so if they had wanted to. Audits from as far back as 2014 indicate that the Louvre’s security systems are in an incredibly sorry state. France’s Cour des Comptes released the report from its most recent audit last Thursday, November 6th. The audit indicates that only 39% of Louvre galleries have security cameras, while CCTV and other security systems use incredibly simple, easily guessable passwords. Consultants exposed the museum’s weak cybersecurity measures after easily gaining access to badge information, enabling them to alter any museum employee’s access level.
The report comments that security updates have been deferred since the Louvre’s administration has pursued “an ambitious policy of enriching its collections, acquiring 2,754 works in eight years, although less than one in four is on display.” New acquisitions between 2018 and 2024 have cost €145 million. The report therefore recommends that the Louvre repeal its policy of devoting 20% of ticket sales to new acquisitions and instead allocate funds to improved security. The report also recommends increasing ticket prices, completely overhauling the museum’s computer systems, and developing new security protocols.
Pierre Muscovici, president of the Cour des Comptes, commented that the October heist was “without a doubt a deafening alarm bell”. France’s culture minister, Rachida Dati, and the Louvre director, Laurence des Cars, issued statements supporting many of the audit’s recommendations. These include adding more cameras, increasing cooperation with Paris police, establishing a cybersecurity operations center, and installing anti-ram barriers to prevent unauthorized vehicles from approaching the buildings. The museum also plans to increase its staff training budget by 20%. All in all, the security updates are expected to cost around €80 million ($92.5 million) and be completed by 2032.
Though several of the October heist’s alleged perpetrators have been apprehended, authorities still have not tracked down the stolen crown jewels.