“Mona Lisa.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 90, 16 December 1913, Page 5

“Mona Lisa.”

THE RECOVERED PICTURE.

A GENDARME'S LAXITY.

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.] Paris, December 15.

Perugia, alone among the workers engaged in the Louvre, failed to respond to a summons to attend the Prefecture of Police when the Mona Lisa was stolen. A gendarme who to question him, perfunctorily searched his lodgings and did not perceive the Mona Lisa under rubbish in a cupboard.

POPULARITY OF PERUGIA.

Home, December 15

Fifty thousand people traversed the Uffizi gallery at Florence, viewing tile Mona Lisa.

Public opinion in Florence is favorable to Perugia, who will be tried in Italy. A movement has been initiated for opening subscription lists for his defence and for providing him with comforts in prison.

Quite recently the Paris correspondent of the Observer asserted that the missing Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), which was said to have been stolen from the Paris Louvre in August, 1911, was not stolen, and had not left the Louvre. The picture, lie said, was damaged by the spilling of acid, and the story of the theft was promulgated in order to save the officials.

Commenting on -this piece of news at the time the Sydney Telegraph remarked :

The disappearance of La Gioconda from the Louvre bids fair to become legendary. When it occurred on August 24 the most surprising developments followed one upon the other. How one of the most celebrated 01 pictures could have been' abstracted from the most splendid of galleries staggered all Paris. The wildest of rumors gained credence. Secret passages in the old palace, hitherto undreamed of, came to light; these the thieves had used to transport their precious burden from its guardians. Men in every country in Europe wno seemed to be carrying a possible picture with a suspicious air were watched. In a remote countryside of Spain, a man was arrested ; this time . the guess was nearer the truth. The suspect had a copy. At another time it was a wealthy American who had discovered the limitation to the artistic treasures that money can buy. The police discovered a clue and an anesi was expected when the liner in midqeean, arrived in,New York. A thousand and one rumors and conjectures and clues were started and tested, but all to no avail. A priceless portrait, one of the best of the Louvre trea-

ures, had completely vanished, and not’ a trace of the way it went. Among the tangible sequels were the discovery of grotesque laxity in the system of surveillance and the dismissal of tlie Director of National Museums and tlie Keeper of the Louvre.

The picture itself, La Cioconda, or Mona Lisa, was painted hy Leonardo Je Vince in 1504, It is a portrait of the wife of a Milanese gentlemen, and the enigmatic smile of the lady has baffled the interpreters from that day to this. The smile is as elusive as the picture. As a work of art nothing of Leonardo da Vinci is superior.