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On this day in crime history - August 21

Examiner Staff Writer 8/21/08

On this day in 1911:The theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is discovered in what has been described as the greatest art heist of the 20th century.

A day earlier, Vincenzo Peruggia, a former Louvre worker, walked into the Paris museum and noticed an absence of guards or visitors. He took the painting off its pegs, removed it from the frame, and walked out of the Louvre with it under his arm.

For nearly two years, Peruggia hid the painting in his apartment, under a tablecloth. When police searched his apartment and questioned him, they unknowingly signed documents on top of the hidden “Mona Lisa.”

It was recovered in 1914 after Peruggia tried to sell it to an Italian collector. The “Mona Lisa” is now back in the Louvre.

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