"The painting's increasing fame was further emphasised when it was stolen on August 22, 1911. On September 7, avant-garde French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down", was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of theft. His friend Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning, but both were later released.
"At the time, the painting was believed lost forever.
"It turned out that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by simply walking out the door with it hidden under his coat. The theft was master-minded by Eduardo de Valfierno, a con-man who had commissioned the French art forger Yves Chaudron to make copies of the painting so he could sell them as the missing original.
"Because he didn't need the original for his con, he never contacted Peruggia again after the crime. After having kept the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was finally caught when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913."
From wikipedia. I was trying to find information about public domain, and found this instead. It's funny! <p>
<div style="text-align:center">dictionary.com | encyclopædia dramatica</div></p>
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at: 8/7/05 19:35
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