STOLEN PICTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1933, Page 5

STOLEN PICTURE

ALLEGED CONFESSION A PUZZLE FOR EXPERTS LONDON, August 8. The theft of the £1,060,000 picture of Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911 has taken a new turn.

John Dean, who alleges that lie took part in the theft, declares that .he told the French Embassy., the picture restored in 1913 was only a copy. He offers, if provided with immunity from arrest, to restore the original, which he asserts is now in the possession of a French collector who believes it to be a copy.

Experts discount the allegations. They declare that the most minute tests and microscopic examinations prove the authenticity of the Louvre picture. Italian experts are equally certain.

Dean however, asserts that an expert copyist used several means of reproducing the marks of antiquity. He declares as proof that the Louvre picture is not original that formerly many people previously gazed long at Mona Lisa’s enigmatic beauty before taking their lives, hut none have done so since the “copy” was hung in the Louvre.

I Leonardo da Vinci, who was born in ! 1452, and died in 1519, painted the pic" . 1 ture of Mona Lisa in 1504, or there- . a bouts. Tt i« a portrait of the wife of 1 Zanaboi del Giocondo. It disappeared over night from the Louvre. Tt is eele-, brated for its “enigmatic” smile. What lies behind that smile has been inter-) | preted in many ways. ' . • :